Powerball winner in Top 10
The pheasants in Winner might have to share the limelight for a while.
Well, it was bound to happen sometime. The town Winner, South Dakota, has produced a big winner — a very big winner. The Powerball winner from the 3,000-population town won $232 million. That makes the Winner resident the ninth-largest Powerball winner ever.
Against the odds
The odds of a Powerball winner coming out of South Dakota are pretty small. After all, 30 states participate in the Powerball lottery, and South Dakota only sells Powerball tickets in two places. That’s two spots in more than 77,000 square miles.
South Dakota has a total population of about 804,000, fewer than the entire city of Portland, Ore., which is a big participant in the Powerball lottery. Narrow your odds down to the 3,000 people in Winner, throw in the fact that the town is called Winner and the jackpot is the ninth largest in the world, and you have got yourself one heck of a coincidence when it comes to the Powerball winner.
Help wanted: Powerball winner legal counsel
KansasCity.com says that for the winner, who has 180 days to come forward and claim the $232 million, it might be worth it to get some emergency loans and hire a good lawyer first. Perhaps that has something to do with the statistic reported on Huliq News: The Powerball winner will get to keep a bit more than $118 million.
Now, if you ask me, $118 million is more than enough to live on. If the winner does hire legal counsel, he or she should make sure the lawyer’s fees don’t negate any additional money obtained because of the lawyer’s help.
More about Winner
The tiny town of Winner is actually the county seat of Tripp County. Winner serves as the county seat for its neighboring county, Todd.
Up until now, Winner has been known for its pheasant hunting and for being the hometown of former Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy. Now, I suppose it will probably be known as the home of the Powerball winner who got the country’s ninth-largest jackpot.
More details for Powerball winner
Huliq News reports:
Norm Lingle, executive director of the South Dakota Lottery, advised that the winner should sign the back of the ticket immediately, put it in a safe place, and contact the Lottery at 605-773-5770 when the winner is ready to make arrangements to validate the ticket and claim the prize.
“The best advice we can give the winner is to take their time and get professional advice from an attorney and a financial adviser before claiming the prize,” Lingle said.
How to be a Powerball winner
From Wikipedia:
Powerball is played as follows: a player pays $1 and picks five numbers from 1 to 59 (white balls) and one additional number from 1 to 39 (the red Powerball number.) For an additional $1, the player may activate the optional PowerPlay feature, which applies a random multiplier drawn by random number generator, to all prizes except the jackpot. Depending on the PowerPlay number, players may multiply non-jackpot prizes by 2 to 5 (or, during a yearly promotion, by 10.)
