BREWER — Three men came forward to claim the $3.1 million “Megabucks” jackpot after they purchased the winning ticket at a local convenience store on Saturday, according to a Maine State Lottery official.

“It was three gentlemen who worked together,” the lottery official said Monday.

The men’s names were not released because winners have a week to finalize tax paperwork, she said. The lottery announced the winning ticket had been sold at the Big Apple on South Main Street earlier Monday.

Local resident Ray Bennett is such a regular “Megabucks” ticket buyer at the Big Apple that several store employees thought he was the holder of the winning lottery ticket sold July 19.

No such luck, Bennett said.

“The first thing they said was, ‘Are you a winner?’” the Brewer resident said Monday, standing in the small convenience store holding a couple of tickets in his hand. “[They’re] not the winners. I am not the winner. I am the loser.”

Bennett was a good sport about not winning, joking about how the jackpot should have been his since he’s such a regular lottery player.

Store employee Ernie Rockwell said he did not know who won.

As of Monday afternoon, the winning lottery ticket holders had not come forward to personnel working at the store. The store manager, who was not working Monday, learned the good news from the lottery ticket-printing machine that sends out announcements of locations that have sold winning tickets.

Ticket winners do not need to return to the store; they can contact Maine Lottery directly.

Store employee Jenni Newells learned Monday afternoon the store sold the winning ticket Saturday and the business would receive a $30,000 selling bonus.

“That’s wicked cool,” she said.

Megabucks tickets are sold at more than 1,200 lottery retailers in Maine.

The South Brewer store “did sell a big ticket a few years ago, but not a Megabucks,” Rockwell said.

The winning numbers were: 4-7-10-11-27, Megaball: 5.

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