Multi-state lottery shockwave sweeping America
Lottery Post Exclusive
By Todd Northrop
Updated: Nov. 6, 2009, 11:28 a.m.
In January 2010 the state lines that have been dividing the United States into Powerball states and Mega Millions states will be blurred by a cross-selling arrangement between the two multi-state lottery titans.
But it was not an arrangement the country's biggest lotto games entered into easily or even willingly.
The lines of division between America's two biggest multi-state games trace back to the incepti ...
Nov 5, 2009, 2:27 pm - - Lottery News forum
Victim of stolen Texas lottery ticket says he knows how to get money back
Willis Willis has an idea how he can get his money back from the store clerk who authorities say stole his $1 million winning lottery ticket.
Just get me in a room with him for two minutes, says the 67-year-old Navy veteran.
Willis was back home in Grand Prairie on Tuesday after a meeting with Texas Lottery Commission officials Monday in Austin in which his attorneys tried unsuccessfully to collect the winnings.
It was a meeting that only seemed to add confusion and frustration to the ...
Nov 4, 2009, 8:20 am - - Lottery News forum
Store clerk accused of stealing $1M lottery ticket from customer
Willis Willis may have had the winning lottery ticket, but it was the convenience store clerk who had his number.
As authorities tell it, years of playing the Texas lottery finally paid off for the Grand Prairie man in May when he walked into the Lucky Food Store with a million-dollar ticket.
But in a double twist of tortured fortune, an opportunistic clerk may have cheated him out of his ticket and his treasure.
Now, while Willis waits to be a millionaire, police are searching for the ...
Oct 22, 2009, 5:58 am - - Lottery News forum
America's multi-state lottery titans agree to ticket-selling partnership
Even bigger, unified national game could be next
They are the two marquee games in American lotteries: Mega Millions and Powerball. Each lottery state currently has one, but not the other. However, the Mega Millions consortium and Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) have reached an agreement in principle to cross-sell Mega Millions and Powerball in all U.S. lottery jurisdictions.
The agreement means that lotteries from across the United States, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, will be able ...
Oct 14, 2009, 9:13 am - - Lottery News forum
Texas Lottery players can now look forward to Powerball
Texas Lottery players: Powerball tickets may soon be sold at a store near you.
Back in in 2003 when the Texas Lottery Commission added the Mega Millions game, the chairman at the time said, why not add Powerball as well?
Six years later, it looks like that is exactly what's going to happen.
Everyone who's ever bought a Texas Lotto ticket is hoping for just one thing.
That occasionally you might hit the big one and then it's off to the Mediterranean or something you never know, said ...
Oct 13, 2009, 7:24 am - - Lottery News forum
Powerball coming to Maryland, Massachusetts
According to local media reports, Powerball lottery tickets will soon be sold in Maryland and Massachusetts. Other Mega Millions states are sure to follow.
Maryland Lottery Director Buddy Roogow expects the sales to begin in the next four or five months. The decision is a result of lots of negotiations between officials in the states that operate Mega Millions and Powerball over the last seveal months.
Roogow says an official announcement is likely to come in the next few days. He says sal ...
Oct 12, 2009, 6:36 am - - Lottery News forum
Woman claims $250,000 just hours before lottery ticket expires
For nearly six months, Lydia Burke of Mechanicsville, Virginia, had a Mega Millions ticket worth $250,000 and she didn't know it. The ticket sat in a napkin holder in her kitchen.
Then on September 23, she happened to see a news report that a Mega Millions ticket purchased at the 7-Eleven located at 2413 Staples Mill Road in Richmond was about to expire. She remembered buying a ticket at that store, so she checked the ticket in her napkin holder.
Oh my goodness, when I saw that ticket and ...
Sep 26, 2009, 8:01 am - - Lottery News forum
Calif. man claims half of $333M Mega Millions lottery jackpot
A Southern California man has claimed one half of the $333 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot.
The California Lottery said Wednesday that Kevyn Ogawa had the winning numbers for the August 28th drawing. He took the cash option, meaning he'll take home about $107 million.
Lottery officials say Ogawa, who preferred not to be interviewed, went to the Van Nuys lottery office Wednesday to claim his prize.
He bought his ticket from an Asian noodle shop in San Gabriel. The business will rec ...
Sep 4, 2009, 9:39 am - - Lottery News forum
Bronx mystery winner claimed half of $333M lottery jackpot
The lucky owner of a winning Mega Millions lottery ticket bought in the Bronx claimed the $166.5 million prize Tuesday, but it remains a mystery who he or she is.
I can confirm that the winning ticket was claimed today, but can divulge no further information, said New York Lottery spokeswoman Jennifer Givner.
Givner said the winner claimed the jackpot at the state Lottery office on Beaver St. in lower Manhattan.
The ticket was sold at Fordham Grocery and Convenience Store. It was one o ...
Sep 2, 2009, 5:49 pm - - Lottery News forum
Texas Lottery announces record sales for Mega Millions
Mega Millions sales in Texas for last Friday's $333 million advertised jackpot were $49.8 million for the prize's entire roll cycle, the highest sales recorded in Texas for any game.
The roll cycle began on July 10 with a $12 million starting jackpot and ended with a $325 million advertised jackpot that, because of brisk sales, was bumped to $333 million, said Texas Lottery Commission Deputy Executive Director Gary Grief. This is the highest dollar value of sales for a Mega Millions jackpot ...
Sep 1, 2009, 9:11 am - - Lottery News forum
