Powerball

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Ohio has a $261.6 million Powerball winner just weeks after the state joined the multistate lottery game. The Ohio Lottery says the only ticket matching all six numbers in Wednesday night's drawing was sold at a store in Sunbury, about 20 miles north of Columbus. Lottery officials plan to present the Hub Carry Out with $100,000 Thursday morning for selling the winning ticket. Store owner Ralph Smith says it's the most exciting day in the history of the 61-year-old business.

Pa. man claims Powerball winnings ST. THOMAS, Pa. - A retired federal employee showed his faith in the U.S. Postal Service when he sent his $100,004 Powerball ticket to Charleston, W.Va., via registered mail. Rick Estep, 48, said he thought about taking the ticket down personally, but "I didn't feel like driving 300 miles. " "If it was the $55 million prize, I guarantee there would have been a caravan with me," he said. Estep, who retired four years ago after 25 years in the federal government, matched all the numbers except the Powerball in the West Virginia lottery drawing Wednesday.

Powerball jackpot winner W. Randy Smith attended the formal presentation of $1.5 million of his winnings Tuesday to the Martinsburg-Berkeley County Parks & Recreation Board with a shirt pocket creased by 15 lottery tickets. Before taking part in the check-presentation ceremony, the former Berkeley County magistrate and sheriff purchased five tickets for each of the upcoming Powerball, Mega Millions and Hot Lotto game drawings. "I continue to play because I see how much can be done (in the community)

photo: RICHARD T. MEAGHER / staff photographer enlarge By LAURA ERNDE and CLYDE FORD / Staff Writers FALLING WATERS, W.Va. - Powerball fever caused traffic to back up Monday on U.S. 11 to Interstate 81 with out-of-state drivers stopping to buy lottery tickets at the Texaco Food Mart in Falling Waters. With the jackpot now estimated at a whopping $250 million, the "fever" has become an epidemic. --cont from front page -- No one hit the $183 million prize on Saturday.

by Kevin G. Gilbert / staff photographer see the enlargement Powerball players line up for record jackpot MARLOWE, W.Va. - Powerball lottery sales were reaching a frenzy Tuesday as ticket-buyers lined up for a chance at the world record $175 million jackpot up for grabs tonight. --cont. from front page-- A line formed early Tuesday and continued throughout the day at the Texaco Food Mart in Marlowe, at the northernmost exit off Interstate 81 in West Virginia.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A Powerball jackpot ticket worth $232 million was sold in the South Dakota town of Winner. State lottery officials say the owner has yet to come forward but they plan to hold a news conference Thursday morning in Pierre to offer details. They say it's the ninth-largest Powerball jackpot ever. Out of the millions of tickets sold for Wednesday night's drawing, only one matched all six winning numbers: 5, 6, 12, 16 and 21. The Powerball was 7. A dozen players came close to the big money by matching five numbers.

Berkeley 9th in W.Va. lottery sales By DAVE McMILLION / Staff Writer, Charles Town MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Berkeley County ranked ninth among West Virginia's 55 counties in lottery sales this past fiscal year, generating $6.6 million in sales, according to year-end figures released by the West Virginia Lottery. Jefferson County ranked 13th with $4.5 million in sales and Morgan County ranked 39th with $916,562 in sales, according to the Lottery Commission. Lottery officials say the high rankings of Berkeley and Jefferson can be attributed to Powerball sales.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. Two weeks after a Hot Lotto ticket worth $8.47 million was sold at an Eastern Panhandle store, no one has claimed the prize. The ticket was sold at the State Line Market in Bunker Hill, W.Va., for the March 18 drawing. "Someone should have shown up," said store cashier MaryAnn Cupano, who sold the winning ticket. "It's like, where did they go?" The winning numbers in the March 18 drawing were 1, 8, 10, 23 and 33, and the hotball was 11. Hot Lotto winners have 180 days to claim their prize money, West Virginia Lottery spokeswoman Libby White said.

julieg@herald-mail.com If Butch McPherson wins another large lottery prize, he won't be doing as much bragging. "Everybody calls here and wants money. How much do you get out of $30,000? You don't get much," said McPherson, 62, who lives east of Clear Spring. Maryland Lottery officials don't track lottery payouts by county, but McPherson's $30,000 Slingo winnings last May were among the larger winnings announced in Washington County during the fiscal year from July 1, 2001, to June 30, 2002.

By BRENDAN KIRBY Staff Writer HALFWAY - Jeffrey and Theresa Swope hit the jackpot this week, but don't expect them to make any extravagant purchases with their lottery winnings. "We ain't gonna blow it all at once," Jeff Swope said. Swope said several home improvement projects planned for their house in Halfway - a new deck, living room improvements and a remodeled bathroom - will now get done a little sooner. Swope, who works at Grove Worldwide, said he will bank the rest, although he added that his three children have ideas of their own. "They're all yelling about a pool, but I'll have to think about that," he said.

A Chambersburg man has claimed a $1 million Powerball ticket from the May 11 drawing, according to the Pennsylvania Lottery. Robert Knotts claimed the ticket that was sold at Sheetz at 900 Wayne Ave. in Chambersburg, a lottery department spokeswoman said Thursday. She said Knotts declined to be interviewd about his experience. Knotts' ticket was one of two from Pennsylvania that matched all five white balls (6-13-19-23-43) that day. The tickets did not match the red Powerball, which was 16. The combination meant each ticket had a prize of $1 million, less 25 percent federal withholding.

Wednesday might have been Trish Riley's lucky day. “On a whim,” Riley, 47, made an atypical afternoon stop at Central City Liquors in Hagerstown to buy lottery tickets - a luxury she allows herself only three times a year. But when she does play the odds, Riley said she usually wins. Little did the Hagerstown resident know, she turned up in the store's lottery lounge for her tri-annual trip the day of the third-largest Powerball jackpot ever and the seventh-largest prize award of any lottery, according to the Associated Press.

A third-tier ticket worth $10,000 in the recent Powerball drawing with a $587.5 million jackpot was sold at the Maugans Avenue Shell, according to Maryland Lottery officials. The ticket, which has been claimed, was one of 10 statewide that matched four numbers and the Powerball. Odds of doing so are 1 in 648,975.96, according to the lottery's website. Other third-tier winners were sold in Baltimore City (2) and Baltimore (2), Calvert, Montgomery, Prince George's (2) and St. Mary's counties, according to lottery officials.

With Saturday night's Powerball jackpot expected to reach more than $325 million, local liquor store clerks said they anticipated an increase in lottery sales as customers take a chance at becoming part of America's top 1 percent. Marie Stover, a clerk at C&R Liquors on Dual Highway in Hagerstown, said Powerball sales were slow Friday morning, but she predicted they would pick up as the time of the drawing gets closer. “They start coming in whenever they realize it's really up there,” she said.

A Waynesboro man has claimed a Powerball ticket that netted him $750,000, according to Pennsylvania Lottery officials. Jeffrey Piper brought a winning ticket from the April 14 drawing to lottery headquarters near Harrisburg, Pa., on Monday, lottery spokeswoman Lauren Piccolo said Tuesday. Piper will receive a $750,000 lump-sum payment in four to six weeks, Piccolo said. The total prize of $1 million in winnings was subject to 25 percent federal withholdings, she said. A woman who answered the phone at a Waynesboro listing for Piper declined to comment.

A winning Powerball ticket sold at Rutter's Farm Store, 141 S. Potomac St., for the April 14 drawing has yet to be claimed, a Pennsylvania Lottery spokeswoman said Monday. The ticket is worth $1 million, which is subject to 25 percent federal withholding. The winning ticket correctly matched all five white balls - 14, 15, 16, 19 and 24 - but not the red Powerball 02. The Pennsylvania Lottery encourages each holder of a winning ticket to sign the back of the ticket, call the lottery at 717-702-8146 and file a claim at lottery headquarters in Middletown, Pa., or at any of the lottery's seven area offices.

With just five numbers, a Rutter's Farm Store customer became nearly $1 million richer late last week. The store at 141 S. Potomac St. sold a Powerball ticket that hit a major jackpot in the April 14 drawing, Pennsylvania Lottery officials announced in a news release. The winning ticket correctly matched all five white balls - 14, 15, 16, 19 and 24 - but not the red Powerball 02, to win a prize of $1 million, less 25 percent federal withholding, the news release stated. Another ticket worth $1 million was sold for the same day's drawing in Montgomery County, Pa. Waynesboro Rutter's Store Manager Jody Stine said she received a phone call Monday morning alerting her of the news.

What is there about money that always brings out the best in people? In the past week, I've heard dozens of people lament their failure to win the Mega Millions $656 million payout that boils down to about $100 million for each of three winners after taxes if they choose to take their winnings in a lump some. But it might be all those millions of losers who actually are better off. Now I'm sure that for every story you hear about a lottery winner getting bilked out of his last $100,000 by some stripper named Blaze, there are 20 or 30 winners who continue to lead relatively normal lives, just with better cars.

In a special meeting Monday, the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation board of directors approved an additional $600,000 for the South Berkeley Recreation Center project, officials said Tuesday. The funding commitment for the project on the campus of Musselman High School in Inwood, W.Va., was made possible by the W. Randy Smith donor-advised fund, foundation Executive Director Amy Owen said. Smith, who established the fund after winning a $79 million Powerball jackpot in 2010 and previously had committed $1.5 million for the recreation center project via the foundation, could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

A yacht for each day of the week. A garage filled with Bentleys, Lamborghinis and Ferraris. A veritable Xanadu to be built on the tropical island of your choice. All these and more treasures can be within the reach of someone lucky enough to win this Saturday's Powerball, which on Friday stood at $315 million. If there were a single winner, that amount could put the ticket-holder between the gross national products of Tonga and the Federated States of Micronesia. Taking the cash payoff of $193.4 million would still place a single winner ahead of the Cook Islands and seven other countries.