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W.V. Lottery ends 3-year losing streakNews Story
A three-year money-losing streak for the West Virginia Lottery has come to an end, as the agency saw an upswing in revenues for the just completed 2010-11 budget year, Lottery commissioners learned Tuesday. Fueled by the enormous success of table games at Charles Town's Hollywood Casino, and by a surge in sales for traditional scratch-off games, the Lottery saw a 3 percent jump in total revenue for the budget year, for a total of $1.39 billion. Things are picking up, it looks like, a litt
Jul 29, 2011, 6:54 am - Lottery News

Canadian woman who gave away lotto winnings diesNews Story
A central Nova Scotia woman known for donating nearly all of a huge lotto jackpot died last weekend. Violet Large, who suffered from cancer, died Saturday morning at a hospital in Lower Truro, according to an online obituary posted by a funeral home. She was 79. Large and her husband of 37 years, Allen Large, cashed in a winning Lotto 649 ticket last summer and collected $11.2 million. They went on to give most of it away to relatives, friends, charities, hospitals, schools, churches and f
Jul 19, 2011, 8:02 am - Lottery News

W.Va. lottery winner buys trucks for fire depts.News Story
A West Virginia Powerball lottery winner known for his generosity recently turned his charitable ways toward the purchase of new vehicles and equipment for area fire departments. On Thursday, W. Randy Smith gave away a lot more of his money, this time, a little more than $1 million. Six Berkeley County fire departments each got a Ford F-350, four-wheel-drive, four-door pickup truck equipped with snow plows and walk-behind snow blowers. The idea of such specially equipped vehicles is to
May 15, 2011, 8:44 am - Lottery News

Man gets 23 years for robbing Illinois lottery winnerNews Story
A Rolling Meadows man shot four times when two masked intruders invaded his residence in search of lottery winnings says he still worries about being home alone at night. On Friday a Cook County judge sentenced one of his assailants to 23 years in prison. Robert English, formerly of Berwyn, received the sentence Friday in exchange for his guilty plea to attempted first-degree murder, home invasion and aggravated battery with a firearm. All are class X felonies punishable by up to 30 years
Apr 3, 2011, 7:39 am - Lottery News

Retired firefighter is $122M Powerball lottery winnerNews Story
Includes video report Stephen Kirwan, a retired 68-year-old Greene County, New York, resident, was introduced this morning as the $122 million winner of the Jan. 22 Powerball drawing. Kirwan, who came forward with his winning ticket on Monday. chose the lump-sum payment option instead of 30 payments spread out over 29 years, according to the state Lottery Division. That means his winnings will be reduced to $61.2 million. After taxes, the amount will be $40.4 million. Kirwan has lived i
Feb 11, 2011, 3:22 pm - Lottery News

Arkansas lottery director up for review for first timeNews Story
The director of the Arkansas Lottery, who oversaw its successful launch but has had a series of high-profile flubs, will receive his first employee evaluation Wednesday when the Arkansas Lottery Commission. Commission chairman Dianne Lamberth said the panel will go into executive session to discuss Ernie Passailaigue's performance, which has been highlighted by the scholarships given to students last fall but darkened by a critical audit and other problems. The commission met in closed ses
Jan 10, 2011, 8:14 am - Lottery News

West Virginia Lottery move delayedNews Story
It's going to be at least another year before the West Virginia Lottery moves out of leased space in Charleston to a 13-story building it purchased earlier this year on the other side of town. Lottery Director John Musgrave says a lot of renovation work is required at City Center West and the mandated changes have taken a long time to design and will take a long time to complete. Musgrave says restrooms in the building will have to be made handicap accessible, a fire suppression system mus
Dec 6, 2010, 12:39 pm - Lottery News

Arkansas Lottery director scolded by legislatorsNews Story
Updated Nov. 11, 2010, 5:58 pm: Additional detail about audit and findings, with quotations from Passailaigue An Arkansas state audit has revealed a variety of deficiencies in how the Arkansas lottery is being run, and one legislator told the lottery director he would be gone if he led any other state agency. Members of the Legislative Audit Committee on Friday told lottery chief Ernie Passailaigue that they're not satisfied with how he has addressed problems that have come up since the lo
Nov 12, 2010, 1:26 pm - Lottery News

Canadian couple gives away entire $11.2M lottery jackpotNews Story
A Nova Scotia couple won $11.2 million from a lottery ticket in July and now every penny is gone. But Allen and Violet Large of Lower Truro didn't spend any of it on themselves. They say they decided to take care of family, organizations and institutions instead. What you've never had, you never miss, said Violet, 78. Married since 1974, the couple does not live large. They don't travel, they don't gamble (beyond playing the lottery) and they don't buy what they don't need. We h
Nov 4, 2010, 8:15 am - Lottery News

Kentucky woman wins 'miracle lottery prize' after home destroyedNews Story
By Todd Northrop A Kentucky woman facing disaster has been literally lifted from the ashes by a miracle $80,000 lottery win. Sandra Ramirez, 44, of Cadiz, Kentucky, was devastated last month when her home was destroyed by fire. She was at work on Sept. 20th when she received a call that her house was on fire. When she arrived home there was nothing left. Then, on Thursday morning, Oct. 7, she received a miracle phone call from Kentucky Lottery officials: Ramirez had won $80,000 in the K
Oct 11, 2010, 9:45 am - Lottery News