News writer, Interviewer
I've never won a raffle. I've never found a twenty on the sidewalk. Luck and I don't have much of a relationship.
So when I sat down to write about lottery winners, I expected to feel little. Instead, I found myself hooked. Five people. Five very different wins. Five reminders that luck doesn't follow a script.
This is what I found.
The $1.63 million ticket bought from a couch
A Pennsylvania Lottery player didn't even leave home to become a millionaire. They bought a Match 6 Lotto ticket online for the Wednesday, August 19 drawing. All six numbers hit: 1-17-22-26-31-41. The jackpot: $1,630,000 before withholding.
More than 54,600 other tickets won smaller prizes in that same drawing. The Lottery's advice stands for everyone, not just jackpot winners: “check every ticket, every time”.
A $50,000 near-miss that still paid off
In Tallapoosa, Georgia, a Powerball player matched four white balls and the Powerball. Four out of five isn't the jackpot. It's still $50,000. The ticket came from a Citgo Food Mart on GA Highway 100 South.
The numbers: 10-21-58-61-64, with a red Powerball of 17. Georgia Lottery proceeds fund education statewide, so even this near-miss did some good beyond one winner's bank account.
One in 3.1 million, and he knew it
Silvestre Luna Luna of Burlington, North Carolina, put $10 into a Digital Instant game called Wheel of Bonuses. He walked away with a $110,804 jackpot. The odds against him: 1 in 3.1 million.
His wife's reaction said it all: "Are you serious?"
After taxes, Luna Luna took home $73,150. He's planning a vacation and a new car. Simple plans for a life-changing sum.
$100,000 a year, for life
A Michigan Lottery player bought a Millionaire For Life ticket online and matched five white balls: 01-16-26-40-44. The prize: $100,000 a year for at least 20 years, or a $2.2 million lump sum.
This marks only the second time in the game's history a Michigan player has won this prize. The first was a Charlevoix County woman in May, whose ticket came from a small EZ Mart near Traverse City. Two winners, months apart, both chasing the same long odds.
She scanned it a million times. Then one more.
Claudia, a mother of three in Chicago, bought a $5 In The Money Instant Ticket during a routine grocery run. She scanned it. Then scanned it again. Then pulled out the Illinois Lottery app to scan it a third way, because $400,000 didn't seem real.
Her family didn't believe her either. "They said, 'No way, you're playing with us,'" she recalled. "I told them, well, I've already scanned this thing a million times today — let's make it a million and one."
Claudia plans to use the money for her kids' education, plus a back-to-school shopping spree they don't know is coming. The retailer that sold her ticket earns a $4,000 bonus for the sale.
A jammed machine almost cost him a million dollars
At a Sheetz in Manchester, Maryland, a man bought a $20 100X the Cash scratch-off. The machine jammed before it could print his ticket. He could have walked away. He didn't.
An employee told him it was the last ticket of its kind and worked to get it out. When it finally printed, he scanned it before scratching. A "go to lottery" message appeared. Then came the scratching: a $10,000 prize, multiplied by 100.
"The math in my head went right away," he said. "It's a million dollars."
He checked the app. He rescanned the ticket at the counter. Then he went home and surprised his wife, who wasn't impressed until she understood the real number. He hasn't decided how to spend the money, but helping his grandchildren and renovating his house are both on the table.
What these stories have in common
Not much, really. A retiree in Maryland who refused to give up on a broken machine. A mother in Chicago who checked her ticket until she believed it. A Michigan player who won a prize so rare it's only happened twice.
Luck doesn't discriminate by age, income, or how many times you've played before. It shows up when it wants to, however it wants to. Maybe that's the part I keep coming back to. I'm still not lucky. But I get why people keep buying tickets.
