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 followed by 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.
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Zip code for Bishop TX 78343 hey, its worth a try !! : )
If I ever win "big", I will be a mystery also.
Lots of places to live in the USA !
Mathematicians say the chances are as slim as 1 in 18 septillion — that's 18 followed by 24 zeros.
lol...
The Texas Lottery Commission has seen repeat winners before, but none on the scale of Ginther..
i remember there was a news story here in LP cant remember when, not long ago where all across the USA there were repeat winners of scratchoffs some of them winning 3 times i think others 4 but not substantial prizes....Some of them with funny names...
Wonder if she picked her own lotto numbers or bought QPs?
Pure luck!!!! CONGRAT!!!!!!!!!
I do agree with you.........thats truly luck.....congrats.........
I didn't know that Joan won 4 jackpots.
Well, three of the tickets were scratch offs so no chance of her picking her own numbers, but who knows on the other lottery ticket.
she is just winning the scratcher. is not like she is hitting the jackpot. still i wish i was in her shoes. i have never win anything big on scratcher.
BEYOND COINCIDENCE ???
Usually people who move to Las Vegas do so for a purpose, such as a job,retirement or with an agenda of beating the odds!
Could it be that our Professor of mathematics PhD has such a goal?
Vegas is not like Texas, where the public lottery permits repeating winners even if the player had a halo around her head
Here, the gambling establishments are in privetly owned status & can and have barred players for winning too often and can do so without giving reason - that's why those signs "NRS 207.200" are posted about all casinos.
Bye the ByeWhatever happend to those famous winning Woba sisters who took up residence in LV?
Wishing Long life to the ostensible Lucky Lady, be interesting to see what happens....
EddessaKnight
I posted the news story so you could find out about Joan and her 4 jackpots.
Wanna see something pretty cool?
I posted a news story back in 2006 about this same lady when she was just 2 jackpots into her 4-jackpot run:
https://www.lotterypost.com/news/132099
Thanks Todd, it's very KEWEL $$$
Hope you continue to follow this fascinating story and see what she does in LV (if Vegas is not a cover story).
Kindly keep us posted.....
And Todd did you ever get any follow up on the mysterious Sisters Woba????
Never could come up with a scrap on them in LV-
See what happens in the Land of Ozz
EddessaKnight
Sisters Woba? Not sure I remember what that is.
https://www.lotterypost.com/thread/149621
Congratulations, Joan Ginther, on your $20.5 Million in pre-taxed lottery winnings over this past 17 years!!! Texas has been a great place for you to have won (since they have no state taxes) ... therefore, you only had to pay the apx. 35% taxes on those monies before your TRUE takeaway. You've become an inspiration to many lottery players!
Joan, I bet it's great to know that it won't matter to you and your dad if you never play a lottery game or work for income again! What a freeing, enthralling, and powerful position to have grown into now -- wealthy, yet unknown (the best combination!). You've been a wise, careful, and fortunate woman, great!
Good Morning Todd,
Re: Woba Sisters -& their pick 3 magic numbers- Las Vegas connection
To refresh memory Check out LP archives
https://www.lotterypost.com/topic/172006
Keep up the good work,
EddessaKnight
i bet she aint the type to buy $5 of scratch offs once a week
OK, got it. I'm not sure I believe that stuff 100%. With jackpot wins, it really doesn't matter how much you spent in order to win it, because you're always going to come out ahead. With smaller wins, it is pretty easy to conceal losses.
I do not think it's very unusual. If she won these amounts in a space of 3 years instead of 17, then I might be very skeptical. Maybe she buys a lot
of tickets...she can afford it sure enough. The years stated were 2006, 2008 and now last month (2010) not bad and not impossible. Only 2
tickets were purchased at the Times Market...the other in 2006 somewhere else and 1993 was not an instant ticket.
I could do that and in fact, think I'm going out right now to try.
Just kidding.
Does anyone know if the Texas $50 ticket is brand new or has it been out for awhile?
They have been out for a while. I bought two a couple of years ago.
"With jackpot wins, it really doesn't matter how much you spent in order to win it, because you're always going to come out ahead. With smaller wins, it is pretty easy to conceal losses" ~T
Todd, this statement adds up & is most logical -
However, it still remains virtually impossibile, to pick the appropriate winning jackpot numbers with conventional math or rational means.
Bon Chance,
EddessaKnight
That everything is big in Texas is very true. $50 scratch ticket?? losing that all at once would HURT. Heck I'm so cheap, I wont even buy $10 scratchers. I know, I'm pathetic
I've tried the $10 a few times and twice the $20. Lost all of them. I "win" more with the $1 scratch-off than any other kind!
dk, I've pretty much tried them all and have found that the $1 tickets (purchased in blocks of 20) are better sometimes than the big priced tickets.
$25 tickets in PA - usually win the $25 right back....of course, there's always the chance of winning nothing right back.
$10 tickets in PA - usually produce $20....wow...sometimes, they give $100 which is okay.
$5 tickets in PA - usually win $5 A LOT or nothing or will cough up 5 times the ticket price. Sometimes, some $5 releases do much better than all
the other $5 tickets combined. They'll throw in the good ones just to throw people off I think. Feed the savages and they won't complain.
$3 tickets in PA - IMNSHO - STINK
$2 tickets in PA - these are also okay in bulk - bulk being 10 - 20 at a time. Some winners produce $100.
$1 tickets in PA - I have hit $100 on these - purchased 20 at a time. Right now, the Solid Gold tickets seem to be Gold (or a savage feast at the very
least) I don't mind saying this now because the tickets are right at the point of being beyond new...no one is spying on these threads and going
to change the payout scale in a hurry...it'll die down itself soon enough.
When new tickets come out, they condense the winners - another tactic to sway the public opinion - regardless, in the first 2 weeks or so of any
new release, they win. And win often. After the 2 weeks, they drop down to FREE tickets and/or $1 - $2 wins ONLY. The bigger winners are out
there, they have to be, but they just cut down considerably making the bigger wins harder to find.
The Solid Gold tickets, for any PA players information, are pretty good right now. If you're the type to play 1 at a time, you might still get lucky.
Afterall, you just never know what's coming out of the chute next.
In terms of multiplying your $$$$, the dollar tickets unbelievably, seem to be a good shot....my latest test on the $1 tickets produced these
results:
Bought 20 tickets.....won $56....not life changing results but probably much better than buying one $20 ticket.
Do you think many of her students have tried contacting her after the stories broke?
Good question, maybe the long line of old students are just now drawing lots
Note Bene:
Outside of unconfimed newspaper reports there is no insider Las Vegas verification that the math Professor is actually here anymore then the enigmatic winning Woba Sisters who were rumored (newspaper) to be holding up in Vegas.
Just never can tell.....
"Fortes forrtuna juvat" (Fortune favors the brave)
EddessaKnight
"When new tickets come out, they condense the winners - another tactic to sway the public opinion - regardless, in the first 2 weeks or so of any"
dr65, I find this to be true for NY tickets also. When a new ticket comes out you read/hear about a jackpot winner on it very quickly. Funny thing is the tried and true ones in NY that have been around for a while keep paying the $20-$100 consistently.