Newspaper: Big lottery winners are rare
Many people fantasize about the lottery offering a one-way ticket to limitless leisure, to a life of big houses, fancy cars, lavish cruises, endless shopping sprees and a chance to snarl adios to a nagging boss.
That lap of luxury lifestyle might be within reach if you win big, like Jeff Wilson of Kings Mountain did several weeks ago when he came forward with the Powerball ticket worth $88.1 million.
Wilson, 27, a UNC-Charlotte alumnus who took the lump sum payment of $42.4 million, a cool ...
Jul 14, 2009, 10:20 am - - Lottery News forum
W. Va. woman wins 9th big lottery prize
Brenda Bailey is still on a roll.
Last week, the 60-year-old South Charleston woman claimed her ninth West Virginia Lottery prize, $7,000 in the Gem 7s instant game. That brings her total winnings since last September to $159,000 from five instant tickets.
Lottery officials say Bailey has claimed a total $165,800 in prizes from instant and online games since 2000.
She's not the only lucky one in the family. Her husband Richard claimed a $6,000 instant game prize in January and a $10,000 ...
Jul 12, 2009, 10:50 am - - Lottery News forum
True love: lottery winner reveals secret only after engagement
He wore shabby clothes, drove a wreck and took Lisa on cheap dates. Then they got engaged and Joe revealed the truth: having been stung by other women, he'd concealed his 10 million lottery fortune from her.
Lisa Johnson treasures a ring given to her by husband Joe even though it is unremarkable, with a tiny stone, and cost less than 200 from High-Street jeweler H. Samuel.
It was her Christmas present during their first heady months of dating, and when he presented it to her, she was thril ...
Jul 11, 2009, 12:53 pm - - Lottery News forum
12 Michigan women + 2 men share $12.7M lottery jackpot
Twelve women from a small town in Michigan's upper peninsula have claimed a $12.7 million Classic Lotto 47 jackpot.
Michigan Lottery officials said members of the Island Dreamers lottery club made the six-hour trip from Newberry to Lansing in a stretch Hummer limousine on Tuesday to claim their prize.
Club member Debra Cummings said she doesn't remember anything after checking the first two numbers on the morning after the July 1 drawing.
The Island Dreamers range in age from 25 years o ...
Jul 9, 2009, 8:38 am - - Lottery News forum
Florida man wins third big lottery prize
Luck has struck for the third time for a central Florida man.
James Bush of South Daytona is one of three $1 million winners to claim their Firecracker Millionaire Raffle prize so far from the Florida Lottery. He bought the ticket in Port Orange.
But this isn't the first time the 50-year-old has claimed a winning ticket.
On his way to Florida Lottery headquarters, he bought a Billion Dollar Blockbuster scratch-off ticket and won $1,000. And in 2007, he won $500,000 in the Gold Rush scra ...
Jul 8, 2009, 4:30 pm - - Lottery News forum
Powerball winner's daughter found dead in home
The 42-year-old daughter of Powerball winner Jack Whittaker has been found dead in her Raleigh County, West Virginia, home.
Raleigh County Sheriff's Deputy D.E. Stafford says the body of Ginger Whittaker Bragg was found Sunday afternoon in Daniels.
Stafford said in a statement Monday that no foul play is suspected. He says the body has been sent to the state Medical Examiner's office.
Jack Whittaker became an instant celebrity on Christmas Day 2002 when he won a nearly $315 million Powe ...
Jul 7, 2009, 12:41 am - - Lottery News forum
New Hampshire crushes lottery winners with new 10% tax
Two $1M winners rush to get prizes before taxes skyrocket
Will higher taxes have the wrong effect and reduce revenue to the state?
The day before a massive 10 percent state tax on lottery prizes went into effect in the Granite State, two winners claimed separate $1 million jackpots something never before witnessed by a 20-year veteran of the lottery.
Milford High School teacher John Kasparek, 42, of Brookline, took a lump sum cash payment of $650,000 before taxes after a NH Millionaire' ...
Jul 1, 2009, 8:11 pm - - Lottery News forum
Two winners to share record A$106 million Australian lottery
A couple from Queensland state and a man from South Australia will share more than A$106 million (US$86 million) as the only jackpot winners in the nation's record lottery drawn last night.
Holders of the winning Oz Lotto entries, who asked to remain anonymous, will each take about A$53 million in the second-largest single payouts in Australian lottery history. The previous record jackpot of A$58.7 million was won on a single ticket last year.
The first division prize pool, created after 1 ...
Jul 1, 2009, 2:00 am - - Lottery News forum
Calif. man with 3 jobs wins $39M lottery jackpot
49-year-old plans to take wife to Hawaii and hire financial adviser
For 20 years, Clyde Persley of Santa Cruz worked more than 60 hours a week making candy, driving limousines and waiting by the phone to pick up extra hours at a restaurant. He bought lottery tickets and hoped for his big break.
And he got it.
Persley, 49, turned in his winning SuperLotto Plus ticket to the California Lottery office Tuesday night, said California Lottery spokeswoman Cathy Doyle Johnston, and will receive ...
Jun 29, 2009, 1:57 pm - - Lottery News forum
Lottery winners broke, busted
For someone who struck it rich, William Rivenburgh had fairly modest plans about how to spend his lottery winnings three years ago:
Pay off debts, make home repairs and possibly take a family trip to Disney World. Whether any of those things happened is unclear.
What is clear is that the money Rivenburgh has gotten so far from the $1 million scratch-off ticket he won in 2006 seems to have evaporated. He doesn't have enough money to make $5,000 bail after he was arrested May 25 for alleged ...
Jun 25, 2009, 12:57 am - - Lottery News forum
