AUSTIN, Tx. — Joan R. Ginther of Bishop in South Texas has won $10 million, the top prize in $140,000,000 Extreme Payout, a Texas Lottery scratch-off game.
Ginther purchased the ticket at the Times Market 2005, 525 Highway 77 Bypass, in Bishop. For selling this ticket, the retailer is eligible to receive a bonus of $10,000.
"Ms. Ginther today made her fourth appearance at Lottery Headquarters in Austin, collecting the top prize of $10 million in $140,000,000 Extreme Payout, a $50 ticket," said Texas Lottery Commission Executive Director Gary Grief.
"Ms. Ginther won a $5.4 million share of an $11 million Lotto Texas jackpot in July of 1993, as well as a top prize of $2 million in the Holiday Millionaire scratch-off game in 2006. In August of 2008, she collected a $3 million prize in the Millions and Millions, another scratch-off, which she purchased at the same retail location as the ticket she collected on today. Today's prize is the second of the three top prizes offered in $140,000,000 Extreme Payout."
The winner requested minimal publicity, so the director's statement is the limit of information released by the lottery.
The $140,000,000 Extreme Payout scratch-off game features the highest top prize for any scratch-off game offered in Texas. There are a combined total of over $140 million in prizes, and players can win up to 30 times per ticket.
As of June 30, two of three of the game's top $10 million prizes have been claimed, meaning one more big winning ticket is still available.
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Guess that answers the question "If you win the Lottery, would you still Play".
Wow .......... this reminds me of my wife's "boss" .......... she has won more at slots than her annual salary ........... and she does this almost every year !
Congratulations to Joan ......... I am hoping for my big lottery payout !
God Bless the Citizens of the USA !
I was thinking the same thing!
And it also answers the question "Do rich people play the lottery".
From what I gather from other "heavy scratch players", they only purchase the high dollar tickets which carry way more payout prizes...and substantially higher. This way, they can recover or at least come close to recovering what they've spent on the tickets...still with the high chance of a huge profit due to overall structure.
With the multiplication of prize amounts, even for a smaller win, it's worth spending the money. The $20 and up tickets are pretty good about returns this day and time. I've personally never really had faith in scratch- offs, until now, because they never used to pay out as well as they do currently.
I plan to start investing in these higher end tickets as $100- $200 can actually go a LONG WAY...maybe even to the top as this lady has done a couple of times over.
This is very inspiring just as other posters here have done well with the scratch-offs and posted their winnings. I'm excited and gonna get on it starting tonight!!!
L.L.
The winner requested minimal publicity, so the director's statement is the limit of information released by the lottery.
1. Joan R. Ginther of Bishop in South Texas has won $10 million
2. Ginther purchased the ticket at the Times Market 2005, 525 Highway 77 Bypass, in Bishop.
3. Ms. Ginther won a $5.4 million share of an $11 million Lotto Texas jackpot in July of 1993, as well as a top prize of $2 million in the Holiday Millionaire scratch-off game in 2006
4. In August of 2008, she collected a $3 million prize in the Millions and Millions
That's their idea of limited information about the winner? I live in Ohio and with that information I could drive to Texas and probably meet up with her on my first day there.
Good eye.
L.L.
You know, I've been thinking. The higher end scratch-offs might not be such a bad idea, also, for lottery pools. More people could play for more money for less overall money. When a really good hit takes place, the investors simply split the profits, or, re-invest for more tickets.
Man, (5) people can purchase $100 worth of $20 scratch-off tickets and maybe come out pretty darn good!! Just an idea but, this might be another efficient and methodical way to make some cashola. Again, just an idea.
Disclaimer: The thoughts posted here are solely mine and are in no way intended to influence anyone in any shape, form, or fashion.
(I feel safer with that.)
L.L.
Congratulations to her! WTG!
Mr. Ginther appears to be a very lucky person when it comes to the lottery! Congrats to her on her win.
job well done. keep scratching.
That lady has good luck and she was probably born that way.
I've known people like that, not to that extent though.
Wonder if there's a good luck gene?
Disclaimer: The thoughts posted here are solely mine and are in no way intended to influence anyone in any shape, form, or fashion.
At $50 each, I don't think you're going to influence anyone to buy one who doesn't really want one. I'm surprised they sold enough to make a profit.
I alway thought all those $50 tickets would have at least a $1 winner just to keep the players coming back for more, but they must figure anyone who buys a $50 ticket would consider a dollar prize an insult.
Yeah, you're probably right.
L.L.
lb, this is where lottery pools shine most, and, why it would've really shined in your particular case here. It's not guaranteed that a big win will take place even with several higher end tickets purchased. But, in the event of a complete loss as described here, several people as partners could've shared the "total miss" instead of just you taking the whole miss financially.
As I stated before, it's only an idea which would work well in cases like this. The partners would need to establish a good understanding with the whole deal, and, preferrably get it in some form of writing. Only business because there's money involved.
The thing to understand about these scratch-offs is that when average players don't buy 'em, it simply means that more big payoffs are still available to cash in on. Now, it might not happen on the first or second try but, eventually the big boy rolls have to "show face" with a good payout if purchasing consistently.
Just think, you could've purchased (6) $25 scratch-offs all at once if playing alone, or, the same (6) at different intervals if playing in a pool.
It has its' pros and cons just like anything else...just depends on how one looks at it. Good luck on future purchases!!!
L.L.
I've heard of people winning more than once, but this lady takes the prize. Literally!!
Good for her. What are the odds of winning any state lottery for millions of dollars for a fourth time?
Times market in Bishop has got to be the luckiest place to play the lottery in the world.
I feel you. I did the same with California millionair scratcher but I didn't even win a dollar
who knows I might pick the winning the number in the lottery. keeping my hopes up can't look back and be down all the time. life moves on.
What are the odds of winning any state lottery for millions of dollars for a fourth time?
Probably better than you think for folks who have already won three times.
Ouch according to my reaction! I didn't know there was a big top prize in this scratch off game in Texas.
Now this is what I'm talking about.
Multi-million dollar prize winner.
That's the way it should be done.
Looking forward to the day it happens to me and others here at this site.
Makes me want to buy a scratcher with the $5 in my wallet!! But with my luck (or the lack of it) I wouldn't get a $1 when I could have bought 5 MM or Superlotto tickets and actually win something.
and Texas is big is huge...
Thats crazy shes winning a mult million jackpot for the 4th time. I just want to win Mass Cash which the top prize is $100,000.
She won 4 times. Good for her. Now let us look at the details.
The 1993 win was with a lotto type game. Good for her. She picked the right numbers.
In 2006 she won with a scratch-off. She stood at the right counter in the right store at the right time. Good for her.
In 2008, she won another scratch-off. She again stood at the right counter in the right store at the right time. Lucky, is all I can say.
In 2010, she won a third scratch-off. Wait a minute! Three scratch-offs! You mean to tell me she found the right store at the right time not only once but three times!!?
Sorry. But I have too many red flags in front of me right now to congratulate this person. I have just too many questions.
Unsolved Mystery: 4-time Texas lotto winner rich with money- Beyond Coincidence ???
Wonder if the Math PhD will start overcoming the odds in Las Vegas ???
EddessaKnight
By PAUL J. WEBER,
BISHOP, Texas – The odds that Joan Ginther would hit four Texas Lottery jackpots for a combined nearly $21 million are astronomical. Mathematicians say the chances are as slim as 1 in 18 septillion — that's 18 and 24 zeros.
Just as unlikely? Getting to know one of the luckiest women in the world.
"She wants her privacy," friend Cris Carmona said.
On a $50 scratch-off ticket bought in this rural farming community, Ginther won $10 million last month in her biggest windfall yet. But it was the fourth winning ticket in Texas for the 63-year-old former college professor since 1993, when Ginther split an $11 million jackpot and became the most famous native in Bishop history.
But she's a celebrity who few in this town of 3,300 people can say much about.
"That lady is pretty much scarce to everybody," said Lucas Ray Cruz, Ginther's former neighbor. "That's just the way she is."
At the Times Market where Ginther bought her last two winning tickets, the highway gas station is fast becoming a pilgrimage for unlucky lottery losers. Lines stretch deep past a $5.98 bin of Mexican movie DVDs, and a woman from Rhode Island called last week asking to buy tickets from the charmed store through the mail.
She was told that was illegal. The woman called back to plead again anyway.
The Texas Lottery Commission has seen repeat winners before, but none on the scale of Ginther. Spokesman Bobby Heith said the agency has never investigated Ginther's winnings — three scratch-off tickets and one lottery draw — for possible fraud but described the verification system as thorough. Her other winnings — both from scratch-off tickets — were $2 million in 2006 and $3 million in 2008.
So how did Ginther do it, then?
Good luck pinning her down to ask.
Ginther has never spoken publicly about her lotto winnings and could not be found for comment. She now lives in Las Vegas after moving away from Bishop, and an answering machine message for a telephone number listed at her address says not to leave a message.
She asked the few people who've exchanged more than brief pleasantries with her not to grant interviews and sneaked into lottery headquarters in Austin to collect her winnings with the least publicity the state offers jackpot winners.
But spend a few hours in her hometown — and equal time scouring public records — and a contrasting profile emerges.
Her home address in Las Vegas is on a street called Paradise Drive. When USA Today asked readers in 2000 to sound off on airline service, Ginther groaned over a flight attendant who carted away her cheese and crackers and a sundae too soon. Two years later, she grumbled to the Las Vegas Review-Journal about a proposed monorail running through her exclusive condominium towers.
"I moved here because I wanted to have a beautiful home with a great view and that's what I have. I didn't expect to have a monorail come down here with thousands of tourists every day," Ginther told the newspaper, in what might have been the only time she was directly quoted in the media.
Nitpicking first-class service, and mad the view in her luxury home might be spoiled?
Bishop residents may not know much about Ginther — but they know that's not her.
Here around the cotton farms and boarded-up downtown, Ginther, who over the years regularly visited the town to see her father who died in 2007, is called benevolent as much as she's called lucky. They say she bought the church a van. Gave money to the family that runs the Days Inn off the highway. When she moved, she donated her home to charity.
Sun Bae, who owns the Time Market and sold Ginther her last two winning tickets, said she drives around in a bland Nissan sedan but once bought a nicer car for someone down on their luck. Bae said Ginther doesn't even own a cell phone.
"She is a very generous woman. She's helped so many people," Bae said.
Calculating the actual odds of Ginther hitting four multimillion-dollar lottery jackpots is tricky. If Ginther's winning tickets were the only four she ever bought, the odds would be one in 18 septillion, according to Sandy Norman and Eduardo Duenez, math professors at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Exactly how often Ginther plays is unknown. But Norman and Duenez said that a habitual player winning four times over a 17-year span is much less far-fetched.
At the Times Market, Bae and store regular Gloria Gonzalez said they've certainly watched Ginther buy her share of tickets over the years. And not just for her.
Gonzalez said when her elderly father would sit at the store's window booth and scrub through dollar scratch-offs, Ginther would surprise him with a $50 ream of tickets.
"Win, win, win," Ginther would chant, rooting him on.
After all, the only way to win is to keep playing. Ginther is smart enough to know that's how you beat the odds: she earned her doctorate from Stanford University in 1976, then spent a decade on faculty at several colleges in California.
Teaching math.
Nice article