Two winning Powerball tickets — each worth $150,000 — have been claimed after they were sold at the same Paducah convenience store for the game’s April 6 drawing.
Both winners, one an anonymous woman and the other veteran riverboat captain Jimmy Sharp, bought their tickets at the Quick Shop on Bridge Street, the Kentucky Lottery revealed in a news release Friday.
Sharp, who has piloted a riverboat for almost 50 years, doesn’t normally play the Powerball unless the jackpot tops $100 million, he told Kentucky Lottery officials. However, enticed by the game’s $1.32 billion jackpot up for grabs April 6, he decided to try his luck.
When he purchased his tickets, Sharp took the advice of his grandson, who told him to buy the game’s Power Play for an extra buck per play. That ultimately tripled Sharp’s winnings, landing him a $150,000 prize after he matched four white balls and the red Powerball.
The winning numbers for the April 6 Powerball draw were 22, 27, 44, 52, 69 and Powerball 9.
Winners don’t need to match the white ball numbers in any particular order, according to Powerball rules.
Sharp described his reaction when the store’s cashier rang up the winning ticket.
“I had six tickets, and when I gave her the fifth one that’s when it lit the machine up,” he said according to the Kentucky Lottery news release. “She said, ‘Oh, you’ve got a big winner.’”
Wednesday, Sharp made the trip to Kentucky Lottery headquarters in Louisville to collect this prize, a requirement for big wins. He walked away with a check worth $108,000 after taxes.
“I felt pretty good,” Sharp said.
A second Paducah winner, this one a woman who wished to remain unnamed, also won $150,000 after buying a ticket at the same store.
“I was circling the numbers to see how I won,” the woman told lottery officials. “I was like, wait a minute and it just kept going on down the line. I really didn’t know how much I’d even won.”
The discovery felt surreal.
“I can’t believe I was just one number away from becoming a billionaire,” she said. “I’m very thankful though and content with what I have.”
After taxes, the woman also received a check for $108,000 for her win.
The Quick Shop will receive $3,000 for selling both winning tickets.
As for the jackpot, a player in Portland, Ore., is working with lottery officials to claim the big prize, media outlets report.
If you or a loved one have a gambling problem, help is available. Call the National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-GAMBLER.
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