Laid off Oregon man wins $1 million
By Todd Northrop
Laid off since May, Riley Gunn was driving his wife and kids home to their cabin in the woods in southern Oregon after registering for computer programming classes, when he pulled off the freeway to buy corn dogs for the kids.
Knowing his wife would not approve because money was so tight, but feeling he was sure to win, Gunn said Tuesday he bought an $8 lottery ticket, letting the machine pick the numbers.
When he checked online, he found he had won $1 million.
Riley ...
Jan 16, 2013, 9:21 am - Lottery News forum
Multi-state Wild Card game to change
By Todd Northrop
Starting with the Wednesday night drawing, the multi-state Wild Card 2 lottery game will undergo some minor changes that will make the jackpots a little bigger, while making the game a little harder to win.
Wild Card 2 is currently available to play in Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.
After somebody wins the jackpot, the new starting jackpot will be $200,000 doubling the old starting jackpot of $100,000.
Also, players who win the second prize by matchin ...
Jan 15, 2013, 2:18 pm - Lottery News forum
Florida Powerball winner claims $50 million jackpot
Christopher McGurran overnight went from living a modest life to living large.
The 30-year-old and his wife claimed the $50 million Powerball jackpot drawn last month in St. Petersburg.
It's always somebody, someplace else, and you wonder if somebody won it. It's nice, said neighbor Bud Patten.
McGurran, a heating and cooling technician, bought the winning ticket at a Sweetbay grocery store just minutes from his home. Little did he know at the time that it would be his golden one.
T ...
Jan 14, 2013, 10:24 am - Lottery News forum
Powerball jackpot a mixed blessing
Sandra Hayes won millions in a Powerball jackpot, and now she is warning others to be careful what they wish for. She says she was both blessed and cursed with the big win.
I make it a point to go to Hawaii every year, she says.
Traveling is a passion Sandra Hayes could not afford when she was a single mother, studying for her second master's degree.
Three student loans to repay, I'm like man there is no way I can do it, she said.
That all changed in April of 2006, when Hayes and a ...
Jan 2, 2013, 8:09 pm - Lottery News forum
Cashier's mistake makes N.H. family lottery winners
A Hillsborough family is the newest New Hampshire Tri-State Megabucks winner, and it was all because of a mistake.
Hillsborough resident Scott Bennett wanted to buy tickets to two games on Wednesday, but the clerk made an error.
He went up to the register and said he'd like a Lucky For Life ticket and a Tri-State Megabucks Plus ticket, said Maura McCann, New Hampshire Lottery director of marketing.
Bennett was buying the tickets at a Hillsborough Circle K.
The clerk sold him two Tr ...
Dec 24, 2012, 8:12 am - Lottery News forum
Lottery winner Jack Whittaker's losing ticket
Jack Whittaker, a 55-year-old contractor from Scott Depot, W. Va., had worked his way up from backcountry poverty to build a water-and-sewer-pipe business that employed over 100 people. He was a millionaire several times over. But when he awoke at 5:45 a.m. on Christmas morning in 2002, everything he'd built in his life held only passing significance next to a scrap of paper in his worn leather wallet a $1 Powerball lottery ticket bearing the numbers 5, 14, 16, 29, 53, and 7.
Whittaker had pu ...
Dec 19, 2012, 10:03 am - Lottery News forum
Mass. co-workers split $50M Powerball jackpot
The two co-workers had a ritual for the past 10 months. She would buy two Powerball tickets, write their names on the back, and then give him a copy.
It may have seemed a modest indulgence. The longest of long shots.
But on Wednesday night, it paid off big-time with more than $11 million for each of them.
Rosa DeLeon, 52, of Arlington and Reginald LeBlanc, 54, of Lexington, who work at the Costco in Waltham, bought a $50 million Powerball ticket at a gas station in Lexington.
The two ...
Dec 19, 2012, 9:30 am - Lottery News forum
$1 million Powerball winner goes unclaimed in Idaho
A $1 million lottery prize has gone unclaimed six months after the winning ticket was sold at a Meridian, Idaho, convenience store.
Someone bought the $2 Powerball quick pick from the Maverik store at North Locust Grove Road and East McMillian Road June 19. It won the jackpot June 20, but no one ever claimed the prize within 180 days as required.
The store that sold the winning ticket will still get the $20,000 bonus from the Idaho Lottery.
Lottery officials say it's a great reminder to ...
Dec 19, 2012, 7:54 am - Lottery News forum
Idaho $1M Powerball ticket to expire Friday
Time is quickly running out for the holder of an unclaimed $1 million Powerball ticket that was sold last summer.
The ticket will expire Friday at 3 p.m. if the holder does not arrive in Boise at Idaho Lottery Headquarters to claim their prize.
The winning ticket was sold for the June 20 Powerball draw from an Idaho Lottery retail location in Meridian. The ticket matched the first five numbers from that night's draw, but not the Powerball itself. The winning numbers for that night were 11, ...
Dec 12, 2012, 10:17 pm - Lottery News forum
Arizona Lottery releases name of Powerball jackpot winner
The second winner of the $587.5 million Powerball jackpot is a 37-year-old electronics industry professional who grew up in a modest home in Pennsylvania and moved to an affluent Phoenix suburb last year before striking it rich in the lotto.
The winner is Matthew Good of Fountain Hills, who chose to remain anonymous after claiming the prize last week. Lottery winners in Arizona are a matter of public record, and The Associated Press filed a public records request to learn his name.
Good to ...
Dec 11, 2012, 8:52 am - Lottery News forum
