Ticket printing mishap gives player a lucky break
Includes audio report
By Kate Northrop
WEST BURLINGTON, Iowa — A mistake that occurred while printing a Mega Millions lottery ticket led to an Iowa man winning a $1 million second-tier prize.
Josh Buster of West Burlington is positive that a clerk's slip-up is the reason why he won $1 million in the Mega Millions drawing on April 15.
The Mega Millions jackpot for the drawing on Fri., April 15 was $20 million, and Buster made sure he bought his tickets in time for the draw.
He stopped at the local MK Mini Mart on East Mount Pleasant Street in West Burlington, where he asked for five Mega Millions Quick Picks. At first, the convenience store employee printed only one play on a single ticket from the lottery terminal and asked Buster if it was fine to print four more plays on another ticket.
"I feel like that changed the numbers that I would have gotten if he had put them all on one instead of making that mistake," Buster told the Iowa Lottery.
The morning after the draw, the restaurant prep chef got up to get ready for work and checked his tickets right before he drove off for the day.
"I got up to go to work early in the morning," the 40-year-old recalled. "I opened up the lottery app and scanned my tickets. I always keep my tickets in the console of my car, and I scanned it in the car and freaked out and ran back inside."
Buster said that he had trouble believing what he was seeing, but it didn't change the fact that one of his Quick Picks had matched five numbers in the Mega Millions drawing on April 15: 4, 17, 20, 46, and 64, just missing the Mega Ball 23. The Megaplier was 4.
Had he hit the Mega Ball number, Buster would have split the $20 million jackpot with another winner from Tennessee. The lump sum cash option was $11.9 million.
"I don't usually have good luck, so I thought it was a mistake and there was going to be an error," he continued. "So I Googled the lottery numbers to make sure I had the right ones, and I did! And then the rest of the day, I'm just waiting to wake up from a dream."
This was no dream. A visit to Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive on Monday to collect his $1 million prize only cemented the reality for him.
Buster is also the second player to win at least a $1 million prize in Iowa this year, and he said he plans on using it to pay off his car and the mortgage on his mother's house. Once that is done, he'll save the rest for retirement.
Federal and state taxes on the $1 million prize come out to be $240,000 and $50,000, respectively, so the winner will walk away with $710,000 in net winnings, according to the Lottery.
"It will take away a lot of stress in my life — no more of the financial worries," he expressed.
While Buster regularly plays the lottery, it never actually crossed his mind that he would win big one day.
"I always wanted to!" he said in a press release. "I never thought I would, though, but I kept playing."
The MK Mini Mart will receive a $1,000 bonus from the Lottery for selling the $1 million-winning ticket.
The Mega Millions jackpot currently sits at $22 million for the next drawing on Fri., April 22 at 11:00 pm EST.
AUDIO: Listen to the interview
(Click to display full-size in gallery)
Great ,good for you .
"Ticket printing mishap??" He asked for 5 quick picks, he received 5 quick picks, one single and four together. Not really sure if it matters if the picks are combined or singles.One thing is certain, when the jackpot is won, it gives license to the winner to say anything true or not.
Congratulations!!
I think the winner was exactly right. If he had received all his 5 quick picks on one ticket, they would almost certainly be different numbers than what he ended up with. That's because a random number generator typically uses a time counter as a seed value when generating the numbers. Because of the delay in printing the second ticket containing the remaining 4 lines, he likely received completely different numbers due to the later moment in time they were generated.
One of the combinations was the winner. It doesn't say which one. So we'd have to assume it was one from the group of four. I think the takeaway from this is to always buy single tickets
Lady Luck on his side! Certainly though different than this story have bought tickets that purchasers didn't want hoping to hit the big one.
Haven't play MM in a while now, never thought those words would come from my fingertips. Playing PB though and found a $10 scratcher in the trash, and PB ticket from that came to $14=more tickets! The two salesladies each received a PB ticket too since they're always nice to my dog when we come in!
Well done Josh.
Congratulations to Mr. Buster. He is a smart man. Even though he is only 40, he realizes that it is never too early to save for retirement. There is a lot a person can accomplish with $710,000. May he spend it wisely.
But if he had bought single tickets on this particular occasion he would not have gotten those particular numbers nor won that particular prize.
The RNG waits for no man.
Time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin' into the future.
Wow there's so much I don't know!. Perhaps LPs roving reporter Kate Northrop could get us the inside scoop on random generated quick pick selections
Buying single tickets or all on one ticket has absolutely no bearing on this or any drawing. Also the explanation of it being a printing ticket mishap is inaccurate. It is entirely the result of the clerk either not hearing or understanding what the customer wanted or it was the clerk making the error which resulted in the win. He should tip the clerk extra for this but made no mention of tipping him period. Do you think his mother will leave the house to him now.
You're right, the ticket purchase has no bearing on the drawing. But there is nothing in this story that indicates that it alters the drawing in any way. Where do you see that?
Nice win but with an extra $1 spent that $1M would have been $4M.
I didn't. You ask for quick pics and this type of thing happens. You fill out cards and it never happens. His ticket purchase had a bearing on the numbers he got and it did work out this time.