Winning $217M Powerball ticket sold in Virginia

Feb 8, 2013, 8:58 am (52 comments)

Powerball

By Todd Northrop

Someone who bought a Powerball ticket in the Richmond, Va. airport for Wednesday night's drawing will wake up a multimillionaire.

The Virginia Lottery said the ticket sold for Wednesday's $217 million drawing matched all five numbers plus the Powerball.

The winning numbers were 5, 27, 36, 38, and 41, with Powerball number 12.

In addition to the jackpot winner, 7 lucky players matched the first 5 numbers for a $1,000,000 prize: 1 from Arizona, 1 from Connecticut, 1 from Illinois, 1 from Kentucky, 2 from New York, and 1 from Rhode Island.

Of all the second-prize winners, only the Rhode Island ticket was purchased with the Power Play option for an extra $1, automatically increasing their prize to $2 million.

According to the Virginia Lottery, the winning ticket was sold at an express self-serve lottery ticket machine at the Richmond airport.  Unlike self-serve machines in retail stores, the machine that sold the winning Powerball jackpot ticket in the Richmond airport is owned and operated directly by the Virginia Lottery, which leases the space from the airport.

Because of the unique location of the ticket sale, two interesting thoughts come to mind:  where does the winner live, and who gets the retailer bonus for selling the winning ticket?

"The fact that it was sold at the self service machine from the Richmond airport means it could be literally be anyone in the world," said Lottery Director Paula Otto.

Up to 10,000 travelers pass through the suburban airport daily, and all go by the self-service machine where the winning numbers were played. The ticket apparently wasn't held by an airport employee.

"We've taken a roll call, and everybody we've expected to show up has shown up," said Troy Bell, spokesman for the airport. A large jackpot, he said, often sees workers pool to buy lottery tickets. Skycaps who are tipped in cash are likely buyers of lottery tickets.

"We could have had a whole crew wiped out if the right group won," Bell said with a laugh.

When a jackpot-winning ticket is sold, the Virginia Lottery normally pays out a bonus of $50,000 to the retailer that sold the winning ticket.  However, in this case, the Virginia Lottery itself owns the lottery machine that was used to sell the winning ticket, so who gets the bonus?

It turns out that nobody gets a bonus.  According to John Hagerty of the Virginia Lottery, because the lottery owns the machine, no retailer bonus will be paid out.

Sorry lotto fans, this unusual circumstance will not create a special drawing or extra prizes for the retailer bonus money.

Virginia's first Powerball winner

Otto says the big Powerball win is creating more than buzz, it's added another chapter into the Commonwealth's history.

"We have never had a huge Powerball winner. We've had lots of 1 million dollar winners, lots of secondary prizes," Otto said.

The lucky winner has 180 days from the drawing to claim the big prize. Lottery officials say they strongly advise big winners to sign their ticket immediately and then store it until they're ready to claim the prize.

Virginia's largest jackpot winner is J.R. Triplett of Winchester, who won a $239 million Mega Millions prize in 2004.

Saturday's jackpot is $40 million with a cash value of $25.1 million.

Thanks to Factorem for additional reporting.

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

sully16's avatarsully16

Congrats to all the winners, nice to see so many who won the million dollar prize, I could live with that.

dallascowboyfan's avatardallascowboyfan

Congratulations to the winner/s.......Thumbs Up

dallascowboyfan's avatardallascowboyfan

Quote: Originally posted by sully16 on Feb 8, 2013

Congrats to all the winners, nice to see so many who won the million dollar prize, I could live with that.

I Agree!

sully16's avatarsully16

Quote: Originally posted by dallascowboyfan on Feb 8, 2013

I Agree!

Maybe next time, the winners will be from Oklahoma and Michigan and it will be us, hehehehe

dallascowboyfan's avatardallascowboyfan

Quote: Originally posted by sully16 on Feb 8, 2013

Maybe next time, the winners will be from Oklahoma and Michigan and it will be us, hehehehe

Amen sister.... I like the sounds of that.DanceBananaCheers

rock_nc's avatarrock_nc

Well I hope who ever it was, they was not flying out and don't know it yet! Hope it won't go unclaimed!!!!!

maximumfun's avatarmaximumfun

Congrats to all the winners and major congrats to the jp winner!

HaveABall's avatarHaveABall

Ooh, could it be that "Jack W." won the jackpot through Virginia again? Idea

Dear fellow members, where on USAmega.com does it show past jackpots being won via 'quick pick' or 'self pick' tickets?

Rudolph

Ronnie316

Quote: Originally posted by HaveABall on Feb 8, 2013

Ooh, could it be that "Jack W." won the jackpot through Virginia again? Idea

Dear fellow members, where on USAmega.com does it show past jackpots being won via 'quick pick' or 'self pick' tickets?

Rudolph

Wish the best for the winner. May he NOT forget to unpack his travel on bag.Roll Eyes

Ronnie316

Quote: Originally posted by rock_nc on Feb 8, 2013

Well I hope who ever it was, they was not flying out and don't know it yet! Hope it won't go unclaimed!!!!!

I Agree!

KY Floyd's avatarKY Floyd

"The ticket apparently wasn't held by an airport employee."

Yeah, because nobody working at the airport could possibly be smart enough to live normally and keep their mouth shut for a few weeks.

Piaceri

BananaPartyHurray!Dance Congrats to the winner(s)!! White Bounce 

helpmewin's avatarhelpmewin

Quote: Originally posted by Piaceri on Feb 8, 2013

BananaPartyHurray!Dance Congrats to the winner(s)!! White Bounce 

I Agree!Party

Artist77's avatarArtist77

And... the ticket was bought at the Lottery Express (self-service) machine located in the airport atrium.

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