There were a ton of great characters on ABC’s brilliant show, LOST, and they were played by an incredibly talented group of actors. But there were also a few characters on the show that didn’t require actors, and one of them were the infamous cursed numbers.

The numbers first showed up in season one when a flashback revealed that Hurley was actually incredibly rich after hitting the lottery. But after winning this vast amount of wealth, things start to go very, very badly for Hurley, and he becomes convinced that the numbers are cursed. After that, the numbers — 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 — take on a life of their own, and we see them tie deeply into LOST‘s intricate plot as the series moved forward.

As proof of how insanely popular the show became in its time on the air, people all over play these numbers on a regular basis when they take part in the lottery. As you’d expect, this very rarely pays off as, well, what are the chances…right? The chances are insanely slim, of course, but on a very special day this past Tuesday, those who played the cursed digits found themselves getting paid and almost found themselves even winning!

When the Mega Millions drawing came around the numbers played out…4…8…15…could it be?! Sadly, no — the next number ended up being 25 and ruining everything. But before it was over another LOST number slipped in there as well, and the winning numbers were 4, 8, 15, 25, 47, 42.

Only two people hit this lottery and will split the $355 million jackpot, but what would have happened had the unthinkable happened and the numbers fell into place as they did for Hurley? It would have been sheer chaos, as 41,763 people would have won and would have had to split it all, surely making it the biggest number of winners for one drawing in lotto history.

Even so, hitting three of the numbers plus the lucky gold ball saw each of these 40,000+ getting paid $150. Not bad, all things considered.

[Source: LA Times]