Congrats "real" winners!!! 

Just as I thought.

More than likely what happened to Mirlande Wilson was that she thought she won without checking her numbers, preached it to the world, found out she didn't win, and had to claim she lost the ticket to hide the humiliation.

Obviously a first time lottery player.

One of the pool members had laid out all sixty tickets on the floor as live TV results came in, and was totally shocked to see that one ticket

had all the numbers. When one member was contacted at 1:00AM in the morning, they thought an early April fools joke was being played.!!!

They did everything "right", and this was the first time they had ever formed a pool together. Talk about beginners luck!         

CONGRATULATIONS to the winners!!!

Glad that the money is going to some relatively drama free claimants...

Let the good times roll!

Finally, this story has a happy ending!  This is great to hear.

Congrats to the winners!

They seen like nice people!

We finally know where the "McDonalds" lady lost her ticket ......... it fell onto one of the 3 amigos kitchen table somehow! 

The next jackpot stop is the 'dale in PA! I am not allowed to claim via blind trust in PA, so I will form a RLT after I claim the money so that the name of the trust is not in the media!

1

I've updated the story significantly with additional information and quotes from the winners.

Thanks Todd!

well i'm be,teachers winning the lottery. good for them! now they can retire and live the good life with 34 million dollars, will go a long way. congrats to them,spend it wisely. wish i could have had won a piece of it,but my tickets did'nt have any numbers matching....O well maybe next time......

Congrats to the teachers and their respective families. I truly hope their lives are comfortably lived and all their travel plans are enjoyed. Pretty smart to remain anonymous, although there is enough information in the above to have more inquiries by various persons............................ Thanks for the great story Todd.....

They all said that they are going to keep their jobs.Yeah,right!Maybe until the end of the school year.

That would be tough to keep your job for another couple of months with 35 million sitting in your bank account. I honestly would have to do some deep soul searching on that one. But going to work with that kind of money ??  I am quit sure I could put a smile on my face and be tolerant of any group of kids for another 8 weeks.

Truly, congrats to them! They did everything correct - copying the ticket, signing the back, going anonymous. 

Ironically, I almost bought tickets with 2 other friends - one of us is in our 20's, one is in our 30's, and the other is in their 40's - just like them! And we all have other jobs, in addition to the one we all work at. However, I was worried about buying us all tickets, while buying my own too. I didn't want what happened at McDonald's to happen to us. So I didn't approach them for us to all go in together. Hmmm.... maybe if I had.....

I agree with you.  A school system is the worse place to try to keep a secret.  I bet the kids already know who won and where they live. 

if you claim anonymously does that exempt you from other people finding out and telling the world if they want to. is there a law against exposing a winner if they claim anonymously. i don't think so. what do you think that the populace is going to say to themselves, ooh they claimed anonymously and we found out who it is. we better not tell anyone or the lottery office might get mad or the winner might sue us. i know i'd put your name, address and telephone number on a billboard if it were possible.

Well,you finally admit what your motives are.It's just because of people like you that smart people want to claim their lottery winnings anonymously.They don't want the a$$holes of the world trying to mess up their life.

I'm happy for these Maryland folks and glad their names weren't released, but I actually think they gave too much away, unless for some reason they had to by state lotto rules (hard to believe that).

If you're going to be anonymous, be ANONYMOUS. That means no quotes to the media, even through a lotto spokesman, and especially no divulging of information about your current workplace.The last one's a real head-scratcher.

I'm happy for the winners.  i too think they gave too much information especially telling about their current jobs in the school system. I pray they can remain anonymous.

Wow, almost $35 million after taxes. ( I realize that does not include their total liability for the 2012 calendar year.) would be curious to read about their lives a year from now.

lucky they won in a state that allows you to remain anonymously

  101%

why bother playing if you're scared to win because someone might find out. what a bunch of timid squirrels. is it really that hard to figure out how to elude predators who you perceive might be after your money. good thing you virtually have no chance of ever winning anyway. what if heaven forbid you actually had to give some to someone. your financial planner that you "trust" will be your biggest problem . and you won't even be able to figure out how much he is bilking you for while you're trying to move away and hide. at least you can get out of that 2 horse atlantic city expressway town you call home. talk about hell on earth, i've been there.

Yeah, it's like talking to a brick wall.

Who are they? Unless I see an actual winner I don't trust the integrity of the game. My state does not allow you to remain anonymous so I will save my money. Level the playing field or deal with the complaints. Yeah some people never will get it, especially uninformed noobs.

Yep, you got that right. See above.

To educate people. I only think the large jackpots could be a scam, and only "certain states" hiding winners does not help their case. I have won plenty of the smaller games, but I see a lot of predictable patterns with jackpot games, and have predicted them many times. Definitely seem set up or phony. Until I win or see someone who actually wins I will remain skeptical.

I think the only stupid ones are the ones who failed to see that the argument was not about remaining anonymous but allowing ALL states the same freedom of choice. But keeping the winners secret only hurts the lottery as there is no proof anyone won, and we wonder if any real people actually won those huge jackpots. Until like the "stupid ones" I don't take the lottery and media's word for it. Just like those phonies on here who live in states that allow you to remain anonymous. I bet their tune would be a lot different if they could not remain anonymous. More self-righteous idiocy and over paranoia.

Who are you?! People don't have to prove (you know the word) to you. You never paid a bill for them. They were not born with you and <snip> sure are not married to you.

Congratulations to the winners.  I am also in line for my winnings.