News writer
When an Arkansas man set out to buy lottery tickets for his wife's birthday, he didn't expect to mess it up — or that the mistake would be the best thing to ever happen to them. What started as a minor mix-up at the counter quickly turned into a moment of pure disbelief and joy for this Arkansas couple. Their accidental detour from one lottery game to another landed them a jackpot surprise they never saw coming.
A small misunderstanding turned into amazing news
An Arkansas couple turned a minor mishap into a life-changing win from the Arkansas Lottery.
The couple, Darren and Lindsy L., are from Bella Vista, and Lindsy recently celebrated her birthday. They usually buy instant tickets and only occasionally play any of the draw games.
However, Lindsy recently celebrated her birthday and in honor of her big day, she wanted to try her luck with $40 worth of Powerball tickets. Darren was happy to buy the tickets for her for her birthday, but he made a mistake when buying the tickets.
Instead of buying Powerball tickets, Darren ended up purchasing several Quick Pick tickets for Natural State Jackpot, an Arkansas-exclusive draw game. He told lottery officials:
“It was actually a misunderstanding.”
Is this real?
The tiny mix-up ended up paying off for Darren, as those wrong tickets would turn into a $230,000 jackpot win.
The tickets Darren purchased, which he bought at Casey's General Store #3264, located at 2 Riordan Road in Bella Vista, were for the May 7 Natural State Jackpot drawing. The winning numbers for that drawing were 6, 10, 14, 27, and 39.
It took Lindsy a couple of days after the drawing to finally check her tickets. While on a birthday retreat with family, she took some time from her busy itinerary to check her numbers and was shocked by what she was seeing.
After realizing she had matched all five numbers, she thought, “Is this real?”
She was still stunned, so she took a picture of the winning ticket and texted it to her husband. However, he didn't respond to her text messages, so she decided to just call him up on the phone to share the good news. She told him, “I think I won.”
And winning she did, as the pair recently made their way to lottery headquarters to claim their $230,000 jackpot. They have since shared the good news with a few other family members and plan on taking a vacation with their winnings.
Remember their names, though, as Darren's birthday is coming up soon, and they are hoping for another big birthday win!
The LOTTO jackpot keeps rising
The Arkansas couple may consider buying some LOTTO tickets for Darren's birthday, as the jackpot continues to climb and currently sits at $471,000 for the Saturday, May 17, drawing.
LOTTO is another Arkansas-exclusive draw game and is currently on a jackpot run. The last winner was on Saturday, March 15, when one ticket matched all the winning numbers to take home the $404,000 jackpot.
Before that jackpot win, the game saw the jackpot climb to its highest level ever. On Saturday, February 1, 2025, one lucky ticket matched all the winning numbers to win the record-breaking $5.12 million LOTTO jackpot that night. We haven't reached those levels yet, but maybe Darren can get some birthday luck himself and win almost $ 500k.
Enjoy playing the Arkansas Lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.
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