A little leap of faith goes a long way

By Kate Northrop

NORTH CHESTERFIELD, Va. — A Virginia man almost did not play the lottery, but then won $100,000 after his daughter convinced him to take a swing at winning the $1.2 billion Powerball jackpot in November 2022.

It's thanks to the insistence of Salvador Gomez's daughter that he won a $100,000 Powerball prize in the Nov. 2, 2022 Powerball drawing, which he almost did not enter.

When lottery players across the country were abuzz with excitement at the prospect of winning a whopping $1.2 billion Powerball jackpot, Gomez could not be bothered. His daughter, however, had other plans.

"I convinced him to play," she told the Virginia Lottery. "He handed me some money, and I bought the tickets."

She headed over to Spencer's Express on Centralia Road in North Chesterfield and bought seven Powerball tickets in total.

The morning after the draw, players everywhere awoke and sleepily checked their tickets to see if their billion-dollar dreams came true, but for the father-daughter duo, all thoughts about their lottery ticket slipped to the wayside. It wasn't until two weeks had passed until the pair had gone back to their ticket pile to see if they had won anything.

By the time the world had discovered that a lone ticket in California had won the then-$2 billion Powerball jackpot, they had discovered that they were sitting on a $100,000 winning ticket the whole time.

The numbers selected in the Nov. 2, 2022 drawing were 2, 11, 22, 35, and 60, with Powerball 23, and their ticket had matched four of those numbers plus the Powerball number. While that would normally beget a $50,000 third-tier prize, Gomez's daughter had paid an extra $1 for the Power Play option, doubling his prize to $100,000.

In return, Gomez said he plans on using the prize money to take care of his family and maybe do some traveling.

A full chart of payout amounts and the official drawing videofor the Nov. 2 drawing can be found on the Powerball Drawing Detail page at USA Mega, as well as on the Powerball Prize Payouts page at Lottery Post.

Powerball drawings take place Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays at 10:59 pm Eastern Time.

Powerball lottery results are published within minutes of the drawing at USA Mega (www.usamega.com). The USA Mega Web site provides lottery players in-depth information about the United States' two biggest multi-state lottery games, Mega Millions and Powerball.