Loyal lottery player is a huge Power Play fan, and for a good reason
By Kate Northrop
DANVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky man who consistently adds the Power Play option to his Powerball lottery tickets has become a first-hand witness to the benefits of the add-on after winning a $150,000 prize.
One Kentucky lottery player will not buy his Powerball tickets without the Power Play option, and now he has a track record to demonstrate why.
William Elliott has stayed true to his method of lottery play, and his persistence has paid off handsomely to the tune of $150,000.
He often buys his lottery tickets at the Kroger grocery store on Skywatch Drive in Danville, which is where he purchased a particularly lucky ticket for the July 19 Powerball drawing.
"I always get my tickets from the same place, and this time it really paid off," Elliott told the Kentucky Lottery.
Within hours of the drawing, he realized his ticket was a winning one - and what a satisfying win it was.
"I check my numbers every night on my phone," he recalled to Lottery officials. "I was up at like one or two o'clock Sunday morning. I noticed where I had the Powerball, and I looked, and I've got that number and that one and that one and that one. That can't be right, so I checked it again."
Sure enough, his ticket matched four out of five white ball numbers plus the Powerball number to win the game's $50,000 prize. The winning numbers were 28, 48, 51, 61, and 69, with Powerball number 20.
That wasn't the end of it. Since he consistently adds the Power Play option to his tickets for an extra dollar per play, his $50,000 prize was tripled to $150,000 since the drawn multiplier that night was 3.
"It's just a dollar," Elliott said. "You see what it did, it won me one hundred and fifty thousand dollars."
He went into the bedroom to wake up his wife, Shirley, when he found out he had won big. "You need to get out of bed," he told her.
"He scared me," Shirley recalled. "He said, 'You need to get up. I've won five numbers on Powerball.' I was half asleep, so I didn't know what to think. He has been the most faithful person to get a ticket. He always gets us a ticket."
The couple drove to Lottery headquarters in Louisville the Monday following the draw. After taxes were deducted from the prize, the pair took home a check for $108,000.
"It hasn't sunk in yet," Elliott remarked when upon claiming the prize.
They told Lottery staff that they plan on saving the winnings for the future, whatever it may bring.
"We're just going to put it in the bank and have it there for when we need it," they explained in a press release. "It's a nice little cushion for us."
For selling the winning ticket, the retailer will receive a $1,500 bonus from the Lottery.
The next Powerball annuity jackpot estimate for the drawing on Saturday, Aug. 16 currently stands at $565 million.
Powerball is currently offered for sale in 45 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays at 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Tickets cost $2 each.
Powerball lottery results are published within minutes of the drawing at USA Mega (www.usamega.com). The USA Mega website provides lottery players in-depth information about the United States' two biggest multi-state lottery games, Mega Millions and Powerball.
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It does sound good to alway add the $1 for power play but it does add up. If one is constantly buying more than one ticket. Each of those extra dollars can go toward buying more tickets. This is why I don't add power play.
Count me in as someone that always adds the PowerPlay option because I don't care what the jackpot amount is. I play for a second place win.
To each his own, but IMHO it's worth it because the odds of winning a second place prize of two million dollars by matching all five white balls are 1 in 11,688,053. Winning two million bucks with those "low" odds makes sense to me. I know of lottery's that have worse odds than 11 million to 1 and pay out less than 2 million to any winner(s).
And then there's this..... I don't want to be the guy who won one million by matching all five white balls, and then say to myself "If I had just sprung for another lousy dollar I'd have won 2 million." I don't want to know what that feels like. Of course I'd be happy winning one million, but I'd be twice as happy winning two million. G5
Hi GiveFive,
Your inbox is full btw.
How are you? I miss reading your post on F5. Todd closed the thread likely due to inactivity. Are you still playing F5 religiously? Both draws midday and evening? In all honesty i don't believe you can predict future draws based on trends. But i liked to read on the trends you picked up on. I know the top prize is lower than ideal. Any decent wins (4 of 5) so far? I've been lucky to get 4 of 5 once.