Nebraska man shocked after finding out he won $200,000 playing Pick 5

Do you pick your own lottery numbers, or have the computer generate the lottery numbers for you?

That is the age-old question all lottery players seem to have, and for one Nebraska Lottery player, it looks like his preference of using the Quick Pick option paid off!

$200,000 Nebraska Pick 5 win

Joseph Cunningham of Elkhorn recently claimed his prize money after winning $200,000 playing Nebraska Pick 5 from the Nebraska Lottery.

Cunningham purchased three Quick Pick plays for the Friday, April 12 drawing at Hy-Vee Food Store #11, located at 1000 S. 178th St. in Omaha. One of those plays just happened to match all five of that night's winning numbers, which were 10, 23, 34, 35, and 39.

While he always chooses the Quick Pick option, Cunningham heard the winning numbers being read on the news, and he thought something sounded familiar. He told lottery officials that he knew he had 39 on two of his tickets. Because of that, he said:

I figured maybe I'd won at least a free ticket.

While one set of his numbers did end up winning him a free play, the third set of numbers was the big winner for Cunningham. He said:

I scanned it on the app. It was such a shock.

After collecting his prize winnings, Cunningham and his wife, Pam Cunningham, said they'd be using some of the winnings toward charity, some to help out their family, and some to upgrade their vehicle.

Nebraska Pick 5 - how does it work?

Nebraska Pick 5 is only available to play in Nebraska. All of the proceeds from this draw game stay in Nebraska.

Pick 5 drawings are held every day, and the results go live by 10:00 p.m. CT. To play, each ticket costs $1. Players have to pick five numbers from 1 to 40 or have the computer generate numbers for them by selecting the Quick Pick option. Players can also add up to 84 consecutive draws for the numbers they purchased.

While the game is drawn every day, there are some windows of time where ticket sales aren't available. Ticket sales are closed from 3:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m., and from 9:00 p.m. to 9:03 p.m. Anything outside those times, then you can buy tickets.

The jackpot for Pick 5 starts at $50,000 and increases by $10,000 until it's won. If there happens to be multiple winners for the jackpot, then it will be split evenly between winning tickets.

For Pick 5, there are four prize categories, which range from winning a free Quick Pick ticket for matching two numbers up to the jackpot for matching all five numbers. The odds of winning the Nebraska Pick 5 jackpot are 1 in 658,008. The odds of winning any prize in the game are 1 in 9.2.

Enjoy playing the Nebraska Lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.