$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 from matching five numbers, seven times with the PowerPlay option from Feb. 29's Powerball drawing, officials said.
Shaver and Simmons played the same numbers seven times and match all five white balls, only missing the Powerball number each time. Officials said the $1 million prize on each occurrence was automatically doubled to $2 million because they chose the PowerPlay option, giving them a total prize of $14 million.
The winning tickets were bought at the Prime 7-Eleven #5706 on 3rd Street in Weston and they pair played the specific numbers based on birth dates of loved ones, according to the news release.
The winning numbers were 01-04-11-23-26 with a Powerball of 14. Officials said the store where the ticket was purchased will receive a $100,000 selling bonus.
Shaver and Simmons's ticket was the only one in the country that matched five numbers and used the PowerPlay option for Wednesday's Drawing, according to the news release.
Officials said four other players matched five numbers in the drawing. Each of players won $1 million. Those winning tickets were purchased in Colorado, Iowa, Illinois and Texas.
Shaver and Simmons, who are lifelong friends, said they will be responsible with their winnings and use some of it to help their fellow veterans.
"We are going to help our family, our kids and grandkids and help some veterans," Shaver said. "Veterans benefits are something we are both very passionate about and we plan to advocate for protecting veterans benefits. We both want to thank the VA hospitals in Pittsburgh and Clarksburg and the Veterans Center in Morgantown and all the people associated with them, because we would not be here without them and have this. We will use some of this to help our fellow vets."
The two winners are the 31st and 32nd persons in the W.Va. Lottery's 26-year history to win $1 million or more in prizes, officials said.
More than $2.2 billion has been awarded in prizes from traditional lottery games since the W.Va. Lottery was created in 1986, according to the news release.
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Great for these guys!
7 tickets with the same numbers? Okay, don't understand why but who cares, they made it! Thank you gentlemen, may you finally get the respect that is deprived to our heros in uniform. We might object to the cause but we still thank you for carrying out the task to protect our families, our freedom, liberty and country!
love it..love it...love it... congrats to the winners....
Congrats on your win. Way to go Vets! That is awesome Baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!-weshar75
When I saw that drawing the other night I said to myself that someone took one hell of a gamble and it paid off really well.
Congratulations guys.
Sandia, I often do the same thing--- and here's why: If I feel strongly about my numbers, yet I don't really think I'm going to hit the big jackpot, I'll play multiple tickets with the same numbers in order to maximize the payouts in the lower-paying tiers.. For instance, If I am certain that 15 will be the Powerball, I'll play that powerball on several plays so that I will win multiple times, etc..... In the case of these two veterans---they just happened to maximize their winnings on the higher-tiered prize levels.
havent you read the latest news? buying multiple tickets doesnt increase your odds, so may as well buy 7 with same number.,
</sarcasm>
Exactly what I thought, buying the # with different PBs
I can help you understand why.
The 2nd prize of $1,000,000 for matching the 5 white ball numbers is not pari-mutuel. That simply means if two people match the 5 white balls drawn, each person will win one million dollars. (They dont split the 1 million equally.)
What these men did was play the same set of numbers 7 times. Had they not bought The Power Play, they would have won a total of 7 million dollars. But since they spent an extra dollar to purchase The Power Play, the total winnings became 14 million.
When I play PB, I usually buy The Power Play. Each line on the ticket costs $2.00. But since I buy The Power Play, each line on the ticket costs $3.00.
So if the winners bought those 7 lines on one ticket with The Power Play played, the total cost of the ticket was $21.00.
Congrats to the Lucky winners, and Thank you.
Wow. I didn't see this happening. Congratulations to them.
Congrats to fellow vets. When I hit the jackpot, I plan to do this except I would play $300 each time. Can you imagine Powerball paying out $200M on a second tier hit AND the annuitized/cash value jackpot amount? I am sure the director would have some choice words for such a winner behind closed doors! Would probably see the minimum jackpot amount for a few rollovers!
Couldn't happen to anyone better than these two veterans.Way to go,guys!
Congrats to the winners!! And Thank You for your service!
I recall reading somewhere in the forums where someone said it might be multiple tickets from the same person (same numbers). I thought...nooooooooo.....good guess to whomever said that! I am learning a lot here.
Way to go WV VETS!
I M ROTFLOLING!
Congrats to the lucky winners. The secret to winning is playing.
I sometimes play my set of numbers twice when Powerball or Mega M goes over 100 million. My mind set is that if my numbers hit, I can give the other winning ticket to a family member so the Jackpot is split within my family and I don't have to be the only one to feel the pressure of such a large sum of money.
Glad to see a couple vets won it and that they're gonna help other vets.
God bless 'em.
Congratulations to fellow veterans! i never intentionallly bought several tickets with the same number for the same play. Sometimes, i overlap dates when i tried to buy some for each month- a set of birthdays i like to play.
oh well, quick picks or birthdays- same chance to me????
What a neat thing to happen to two very deserving guys.
Couple of years ago 2 2nd tier MegaMillion prizes were won in Ohio from the same grocery store in Toledo--turns out someone was playing with his Mega Ball but keeping the same field of numbers--turns out the guy also had a few lower tier prizes as he was playing with all different combinations. That's probably the worst thing to have happen as from then on--if it were me--I would be chasing the dragon to the tune of a hundred or so per drawing and my winnings would soon be gone--LOL
Thats a great ideal as a family gift. Tickets with everyones b-day.
No, I can't imagine Powerball paying out $200 million on a 2nd place prize.
They've got the right to pay it as a parimutuel prize if there are an unusually large number of winners, and you can be pretty sure that's what they'd do in that case. If the winner of such a prize didn't win a jackpot there's a chance they'd pay out more than was actualy allotted to the 2nd place prize pool, but if that winner also won the jackpot I think the chance of collecting anything more than the cash they actually had in the prize pool is about the same as the chance of winning the jackpot in the first place.
Congratulations Michael and Ronald on your exciting, net multi-million dollar Powerball w/Powerplay 2nd prize multiple wins!
I wonder how long this two-man team has been using this strategy?
That's pretty lucky. Lucky number 7 .
Congratz to the winners
It depends the rules of each individual state lottery. Since WVA is paying out $14 their cap may be higher or they have no rule limiting the number of 5+0 wins. The KY site says:
"The set prize amounts listed above are based on the probable number of winners sharing the prize pool. In some cases, these prizes may be paid on a pari-mutuel basis, and could be lower than published prize levels. In this case, the Powerball set prize and Power Play prize amounts will be announced by the Powerball Product Group following the drawing."
Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other states have similar rules.
Another Rhode Island WINNER! Wow
I hope all future winners come from RI, It's our "smallest" state, don't they deserve the "BIGGEST" jackpots?
At least PowerBall is doing one thing it promised with the new changes, it's making more millionaires. I hope they don't run out of money making so many so close together.
I guess more winners mean more East Coast winners as if there weren't enough.
"prizes may be paid on a pari-mutuel basis, and could be lower than published prize levels"
Sounds like weasel words to me.
If there's a prize cap, then it should be published beforehand.
yeah here it goes again.......more of the minimum increases lol. Other than the good size jackpot a little bit ago(which it has gotten up that high when the game was only $1) powerball is looking pretty dismal lately. For some reason powerball doesnt list the Feb 25 $70 million on their list of 2012 winners but the have the other 2 listed. So now the average jackpot won is stated as being $255 million with the old being $141 million. So far this year the average jackpot amount comes out to roughly $155 million (336+70+60 divided by 3 =155)....Curious to see what it is going to be at the end of the year.
"If there's a prize cap, then it should be published beforehand."
If there is a prize cap then it was published before hand. It's right there on the back of your ticket, where it says something along the lines of "there are official rules, and they apply to every game we offer." It's not their fault if you don't bother finding out what the rules are before giving them your money.
It will all even out in the long run, but they're probably losing somewhere around $7 million on this one.
With enough digging, some of the game prize caps can be found on a state's website, mileage varying by state.
When they publish the prize cap info with the same "enthusiasm" as they publich the annuity prize info, then I'll take the "It's not their fault ..." defense more seriously.
Good for them!
That's the kind of news I like to hear about. Great news!