W.V. Ticket Has Winning Powerball Numbers
December 26, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 1:02 a.m. ET
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Someone who bought a lottery
ticket in West Virginia won the $314.9 million jackpot in
Wednesday's Powerball drawing, a lottery official said.
Multi-State Lottery Association drawing manager Sue Dooley
said no other information on the winner would be
immediately released late Wednesday.
An unexpected Christmas Day run on Powerball tickets pushed
the already whopping $280 million jackpot to $314.9 million
just before numbers were drawn, making it the multistate
lottery's largest prize ever.
The numbers in Wednesday night's drawing were 5-14-16-29-53
and the Powerball was 7. The prize would be the
third-largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history.
Joe Mahoney, a spokesman for the Multi-State Lottery
Association said the jackpot grew after holiday sales were
much higher than expected.
``We were always planning on Wednesday, Christmas Day, to
be a very light day for sales,'' Mahoney said. ``Monday and
Tuesday were much higher than we expected them to be and
(Christmas) ... was much higher than we anticipated it to
be.''
But since gas stations and convenience stores -- typical
lottery retailers -- were open Christmas Day, throngs of
people ventured out to get a piece of the action.
``That's about all I'm selling today,'' said Mike Green,
store manager of a QuikTrip in Des Moines. ``A lot of
people are buying them for gifts.''
At a Kum & Go convenience store in Des Moines, customers
bought as many as 100 tickets apiece, including Richard
Nichols, who stopped by before Christmas dinner. He didn't
think it was a big purchase.
``When you don't buy them very often, it's not that much,''
said Nichols. ``We're just about ready to eat, so, I said,
'I got to do an errand here.'''
Powerball, the nation's largest lottery game, is run by the
Multi-State Lottery Association and is played in 23 states,
the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Sounantha Baccam, 27, of Des Moines, planned to buy about
10 tickets.
``I think it's pretty neat, though, isn't it, on Christmas
Day, to go for it?'' he said.
If the prize goes unclaimed Wednesday, the jackpot would
reach record levels, said Mary Neubauer, spokeswoman for
the Iowa lottery.
One first-time player, Bill Sanders, 60, of Mission, Kan.,
bought his ticket Wednesday from a gas station. If the
single ticket he bought is the winner, ``I'd probably
travel the world and live a lot different than I do now.''
The game's second-largest jackpot was $295.7 million in
July 1998. Last summer, it reached $295 million.
The biggest lottery jackpot in U.S. history was a Big Game
prize of $363 million, won in May 2000 by ticketholders in
Michigan and Illinois. The second was a $331 million Big
Game jackpot split between three tickets in April.
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^On the Net: Multi-State Lottery Association:
powerball.com
Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company. |
