110 players guess the same winning numbers
Guessing the correct 5 out of 6 numbers in a lotto game carries odds of about 1 in 3 million. So when 110 players from different states turned in those winning 2nd-place tickets, lottery officials immediately suspected that someone, somehow, was cheating the game. But they were all legitimate.
Finally they figured it out. Those players had all played the numbers that showed up on a fortune cookie. All of those fortune cookies came from the same manufacturer: Wonton Food in Long Island, New York.
Depending on how much they initially bet, each of those 110 people won between $100,000 and $500,000. This resulted in an additional unexpected payout of $19 million from the lottery. They keep an extra $25 million in reserve for unusual situations such as this.
It’s nice to see the house get beat once in a while.
Lottery winner quits job, then takes it one step further
For most people, the biggest benefit of winning the lottery is the ability to quit your job. That’s what Natalie McGuire did when she was part of a group that won about $6 million.
She worked as a hairdresser, so she left that job and spent some time traveling and enjoying herself. But then she was left with the thought, “What now?” She decided she wanted to do something to keep busy, so she went back into business as a hairdresser.
She started her own shop, and hired some of her former co-workers. The funny thing is, her shop is just down the street from the hair salon where she used to work. So she is no longer a former employee; now she is the competition.
And she is turning out to be tought competition indeed. Her shop is doing very well and is quite popular with the local residents.
Strange reaction to a lottery win
Everyone kind of imagines what they would do if they found out they won the lottery. Jump up and down, scream, call your spouse, quit your job, all kinds of things.
Betty Tapson didn’t do any of those things. When she found out that she held a ticket that had a value of $111,877, she simply and calmly went to work.
Even Tapson herself, when thinking about it later on, was surprised at her own reaction. “I don’t know how I did it. I just had to go to work. I functioned well all day and I didn’t think about it all day.”
Eventually, later in the day, she called her boyfriend who was out of town at the time. His first question for her was: “What are you still doing at work?”
They plan to do some remodeling to their home, and they will also invest in education funds for their 7 grandchildren. And they will keep buying lottery tickets, because you never know when you might win a second time.
Powerball is improving!
Just when you thought the most exciting lottery game on the planet couldn’t get any better…it’s getting better!
With the addition of Florida to the states that sell Powerball tickets, there are changes being made that many people will find very exciting. Here are some of the big ones:
1. The starting jackpot will now be $20 million – that’s the largest starting jackpot of any lottery game in the world.
2. Currently the average jackpot is around $95 million. The average jackpot in the new games is expected to be around $141 million.
3. More than 3 million extra prizes will be won each year.
The price of the Powerball ticket will still be just $1. Of course, with these new numbers, your odds of winning will not be quite as good. The odds of winning any given prize will be about 1 in 35. And the chances of winning the Powerball jackpot? Around 1 in 195,000,000.
Still, you never know…
Newest millionaire is now a philanthropist
More lottery winners should follow the example of Kris Schoonmaker in California.
Schoonmaker recently got married to Allana, who is from the Philippines. In Allana’s home province, there are more than 15,000 children that are homeless and in need of medical aid. The first thing Schoonmaker plans to spend his new money on is to build an infirmary or some type of medical facility.
It is refreshing to hear that there is a lottery winner that is thinking of others first, rather than what kind of house to buy, how many cars go get, and how big of a diamond ring to put on his (or his new wife’s) finger. Nothing wrong with doing something for yourself as well, but we love to hear about some winners who are centered enough to know that they can change other people’s lives with their new wealth. Good job, Kris.