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
W.Va. Lottery has $81M surplus
The West Virginia Lottery ended the just-completed budget year with an $81 million surplus, giving state revenues a surprising boost, but agency officials say the future remains challenging at best in the face of increasing competition from border states.
The stronger-than-expected results also remain below the lottery's peak returns during the past decade, suggesting its best years may be behind it because of these market forces.
We view this as uncharted territory, said James Toney, the ...
Jul 16, 2012, 8:20 am - Lottery News forum
Lottery winner donates apartment complex to help families in crisis
Winner has given millions to charities since 2010
Randy Smith, a West Virginia multimillion-dollar lottery winner turned philanthropist, listened Friday to how his donation of an apartment complex is turning into a sustainable community housing program for families in crisis.
Smith, 65, a former Berkeley County sheriff and magistrate, won a $79 million Powerball lottery in August 2010. The total dropped to $44 million after taxes when he opted for a lump-sum payment.
Since then, Smith h ...
Apr 22, 2012, 8:10 am - Lottery News forum
2 W.Va. veterans pull off incredible Powerball win worth $14M
$14 million from multiple tickets with same numbers
Two Vietnam War Veterans from Weston, West Virginia, are millionaires after claiming an unusual Powerball prize involving multiple lottery tickets purchased with the same numbers.
West Virginia Lottery Director John Musgrave introduced the state's newest millionaires at a press conference at Lottery Headquarters Monday, according to a news release from the Lottery.
Michael Shaver and Ronald Simmons share the $14 million in winnings fro ...
Mar 6, 2012, 1:26 pm - Lottery News forum
West Virginia Lottery rule change raises safety issue
Limited video lottery retailers and machine distributors raised concerns Wednesday that a proposed West Virginia Lottery Commission rule change could put their employees at greater risk of being robbed.
The commission is attempting to clarify state Lottery law regarding how video lottery retailers bar and club owners and machine distributors are to split their share of video lottery profits.
As drafted, the rule change would clarify that, under state law, payments between distributors and ...
Sep 29, 2011, 10:09 am - Lottery News forum
W.V. Lottery ends 3-year losing streak
A three-year money-losing streak for the West Virginia Lottery has come to an end, as the agency saw an upswing in revenues for the just completed 2010-11 budget year, Lottery commissioners learned Tuesday.
Fueled by the enormous success of table games at Charles Town's Hollywood Casino, and by a surge in sales for traditional scratch-off games, the Lottery saw a 3 percent jump in total revenue for the budget year, for a total of $1.39 billion.
Things are picking up, it looks like, a litt ...
Jul 29, 2011, 6:54 am - Lottery News forum
W.Va. lottery winner buys trucks for fire depts.
A West Virginia Powerball lottery winner known for his generosity recently turned his charitable ways toward the purchase of new vehicles and equipment for area fire departments.
On Thursday, W. Randy Smith gave away a lot more of his money, this time, a little more than $1 million.
Six Berkeley County fire departments each got a Ford F-350, four-wheel-drive, four-door pickup truck equipped with snow plows and walk-behind snow blowers.
The idea of such specially equipped vehicles is to ...
May 15, 2011, 8:44 am - Lottery News forum
West Virginia Lottery move delayed
It's going to be at least another year before the West Virginia Lottery moves out of leased space in Charleston to a 13-story building it purchased earlier this year on the other side of town.
Lottery Director John Musgrave says a lot of renovation work is required at City Center West and the mandated changes have taken a long time to design and will take a long time to complete.
Musgrave says restrooms in the building will have to be made handicap accessible, a fire suppression system mus ...
Dec 6, 2010, 12:39 pm - Lottery News forum
Former W.V. Lottery inspector admits lying to feds
A former inspector with the West Virginia Lottery Commission admitted Wednesday that she lied to investigators about taking money from a former state delegate who ran an illegal gambling ring in West Virginia and Kentucky.
Carolyn A. Kitchen, 55, of Chapmanville, admitted that she lied to investigators with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service when they questioned her about her involvement with Joe C. Ferrell in February 2008.
Among other things, they asked ...
Nov 17, 2010, 10:45 pm - Lottery News forum
W. Va. official wins $79M Powerball lottery jackpot
For about two hours, Berkeley County Magistrate W. Randy Smith believed he had come close, but that he didn't win Saturday's $79 million Powerball jackpot.
On call Sunday morning at the Berkeley County Judicial Center to hold arraignment hearings, Smith asked his assistant, Mary D. Angelo, to look at the ticket that he bought from the ROCS store at 39 Kelly Island Road near Martinsburg.
The ticket matched the winning numbers of 7, 10, 12, 22, 27 and the Powerball 26. Smith said the compute ...
Aug 24, 2010, 9:18 am - Lottery News forum
