Man buys $10 Powerball ticket at Walmart and hides it — then discovers he won big
A man snagged a $10 Powerball ticket at a Walmart in Maryland and hid it for safekeeping.
The lottery player named Joseph then discovered he had won the game’s third-tier prize of $50,000 — plus an additional $4.
He and his wife only play when the jackpot is $250 million or more, the Maryland Lottery said in an April 12 news release.
Joseph bought a ticket for the April 6 drawing in California, Maryland, when the jackpot was $1.33 billion, lottery officials said.
He used the Quick Pick option to generate random sets of numbers, then he hid the ticket at his home.
When the news broke that a player in Oregon hit the jackpot, he checked his ticket, officials said.
That’s when Joseph realized he and his wife matched four out of five white balls and the red Powerball, scoring them $50,000.
“I probably checked that ticket four or five times to be sure,” he told the lottery office.
They also matched a white ball and a Powerball, winning them $4.
Joseph then called his wife, Sylvia.
“He told me we won $50,000 but I owed him money for my portion of the ticket,” she told lottery officials. “He’s always messing around.”
They will split the prize equally and use some of the money on a family vacation and to help their family out.
California, Maryland, is about an 85-mile drive south from Baltimore.
What to know about Powerball
To score a jackpot in the Powerball, a player must match all five white balls and the red Powerball.
The odds of scoring the jackpot prize are 1 in 292,201,338.
Tickets can be bought on the day of the drawing, but sales times and price vary by state.
Drawings are broadcast Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays at 10:59 p.m. ET and can be streamed online.
Powerball is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Many people can gamble or play games of chance without harm. However, for some, gambling is an addiction that can ruin lives and families.
If you or a loved one shows signs of gambling addiction, you can seek help by calling the national gambling hotline at 1-800-522-4700 or visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling website.
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