Florida's newest lottery millionaire
33-year-old Dawna McAlpin doesn't seem phased by all the media attention she's receiving. In fact, she still has a hard time believing she's a millionaire.
It's still unbelievable. There's nothing you can say to describe it.
Florida Lottery officials presented McAlpin with her lotto winnings Wednesday morning at the Handi Mart Convenience store in Grand Ridge.
McAlpin bought the winning ticket there last week. She s also the store manager. She says she never thought she would win.
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Aug 26, 2009, 11:12 pm - Lottery News forum
Mishap leads to lottery jackpot for Florida couple
Publix employee buys mistake worth millions
When the ticket printer at the Publix on Gladiolus Drive in south Fort Myers accidentally popped out two Florida Lotto tickets instead of just the one a customer ordered a few weeks ago, no one could have predicted the mechanical error would turn out to be a windfall.
The customer was offered the extra ticket free of charge as is the store's policy but the woman refused to take it. So the Publix clerk who sold the ticket offered the extra to a fe ...
Aug 11, 2009, 8:48 pm - Lottery News forum
Lottery heartbreak: Florida man says he lost $500,000 ticket
Florida Lottery security officials have opened an investigation into the case of a 69-year-old Wellington man who lost a scratch-off ticket worth $500,000.
But it's too early to tell if Louis Tolentino will get the money.
They have begun an investigation, but there's nothing conclusive at this time, said Laurie Wright, spokeswoman for The Florida Lottery.
Tolentino is behind on his mortgage. His maintenance payments are past due. Medical bills are mounting.
His $500,000 scratch-off ...
Aug 3, 2009, 3:35 pm - 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
Florida Lottery Raffle drawing crowns 7 new millionaires
750,000 Florida Lottery raffle tickets had a shot at winning $1 million, and seven of those are officially chosen as the big winners.
Lottery players anxiously waiting to see if they are now among the wealthy can check their tickets at Lottery Post's Florida Lottery Results page (www.lotterypost.com/results/fl).
With only 750,000 tickets available for the Firecracker Millionaire Raffle, Florida lottery ticket buyers had a better chance of winning a million dollars than with any other game ...
Jul 5, 2009, 12:30 am - Lottery News forum
Fla. Lottery to try vending machines... again
Construction worker Anthony Carey usually gets $50 worth of scratch-off lottery tickets once a week at the convenience store where he gasses up, but he says that'll probably change when Florida reintroduces vending machines later this year in supermarkets.
The first of 1,000 machines should begin showing up in mid-August and all should all be in place by the end of November.
Instead of just getting them when I'm putting in gas, I would be able to buy them basically anywhere, Carey said wh ...
Jun 5, 2009, 8:39 am - Lottery News forum
Florida Lottery winner opens nude dude ranch
You've heard of nude beaches, but how about a nude dude ranch?
A multi-million-dollar lottery winner in Florida is riling some by opening up his own. Tim Clements hit a $3.3 million jackpot in 2004, and wanted to return to the farm life he grew up in.
Clements, 50, became fed up with strangers asking him for money in Ormond Beach, Florida, so he bought a secluded ranch on the other side of the state.
He and David Jennings, co-owner of the ranch, say the farm is secluded enough to be in ...
Apr 19, 2009, 8:13 am - Lottery News forum
Reflecting bad times, some lotteries hit losing streak
State lotteries are down on their luck as players cut back on games of chance.
From California, where sales for the past year are down 5%, to Florida, where sales slipped 7%, fewer people are gambling on scratch-off tickets and numbers games.
The economy probably has affected lottery sales the way it's affected all discretionary spending, says David Gale of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries.
About half of Americans buy lottery tickets, according to a 2008 ...
Apr 14, 2009, 8:47 am - Lottery News forum
Florida Lottery chief comes under hostile fire in House committee
The Florida Lottery's top executive got a dressing-down today from House Republicans for failing to bid out a lucrative contract produce its TV ads, despite a state law requiring the department to start doing so last summer.
The Lottery hired its New York-based ad agency on a month-to-month arrangement on June 30 one day before language in the state budget took effect requiring the department to put the $3.5 million contract out for competitive bids. The monthly arrangement allowed the Lotter ...
Mar 31, 2009, 9:27 pm - Lottery News forum
Hitting the jackpot: Rebecca Hargrove's winning strategy
Tenn. Lottery CEO says tickets seem recession-proof, help fund college educations
You may not have heard of Rebecca Paul Hargrove, but in the lottery world, she's a celebrity.
The brash, hard-charging CEO of the Tennessee lottery has accomplished what nobody else has in the state-run gaming business. She ran the lottery in Illinois where sales topped $1.3 billion. Next, Hargrove moved to Florida, where she set a new record: $95 million in sales the first week.
In Florida, Hargrove's mar ...
Mar 29, 2009, 11:37 am - Lottery News forum
