Welcome to the debut edition of Lottery Geeks’ “Lotto Matrix,” a weekly Friday compilation of the most significant, interesting, or absurd happenings in the lottery industry.
Let’s dive right on in.
‘Bama tush-pushing its way into the Lottery
Alabama House advances bills to legalize gambling, heads to Senate https://t.co/WGAxA4TfhT
— CBS 42 (@CBS_42) February 16, 2024
Lawmakers in Alabama, one of the United States’ final five state lottery holdouts, are trying to push forward with a plan to let the voters decide in November whether or not to implement a state lottery. On Thursday the measures cleared what has historically proved one of the most significant hurdles: getting through the Alabama House. The twin bills did get through by margins of 70-32 and 67-31, making their way to the Alabama Senate.
The pair of bills that would usher in a state lottery, traditional casinos and casino games, and online and in-person sports wagering, HB 151 and HB 152, have the top political dogs driving them down the field. Republican Governor Kay Ivey initially supported the measures during her Feb. 6 State of the State address.
“I believe the current proposal being contemplated by the Legislature is good for Alabama,” Ivey said, “and I will be carefully watching it move through the process. It will crack down on illegal gambling, and it will responsibly regulate limited forms of legal gaming, including a statewide lottery. Thank you to Speaker (Nathaniel) Ledbetter and his leadership team for their hard work on this. Now is the time for Alabama voters to have another say on this issue.”
Should the legislation gain 60% approval in the upper chamber as a constitutional amendment, it would go to the Alabama voting public for the November general election where a simple majority would ratify the amendment and bring a lottery (among other things) to Bama.
Wake County man’s lucky numbers finally cash!
Iraq war veteran and physician Josh McConkey will put $757K prize toward his campaign focused on fighting fentanyl insisting 'this is divine intervention'. https://t.co/MhDZzBUhyn via @MailOnline #ncpol #nc13 #fentanyl #BorderCrisis
— Josh McConkey MD (@mcconkey007) February 13, 2024
The Doc is in, but he’s going all-in on his lucky numbers instead of telling people to get off the cigarettes. And what do you know, it finally worked, netting him a $757,577 jackpot win.
Dr. Josh McConkey of Apex, North Carolina has always played a particular set of numbers. According to him, he’s usually been a combination of numbers that go with his “children’s birthdays and anniversaries and those types of things.”
McConkey’s ticket, bought using North Carolina’s Online Play, matched all five balls in the Cash 5 drawing for a $1.5 million jackpot. He split the prize with another jackpot-winning ticket.
It’s not all that bad; he still made a decent amount of money after he paid the tax person. McConkey walked away with $541,670. Considering the Doc only had a one in 962,598 chance of matching numbers on all five balls playing Cash 5, he will probably take the cash any day of the week.
“This is quite a day,” McConkey told reporters. “I am still really in shock. It’s pretty wild.”
And guess how he plans on spending the loot?
McConkey, a physician and colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, said he will use his winnings to support his campaign for a seat in the U.S. Congress.
“It is definitely needed,” McConkey said. “It is going to help us and put us in a position to help North Carolina.”
If winning the lottery helps put McConkey in Congress, the North Carolina Lottery can advertise the heck out of that.
If you want to make $500K, just call Ghostbusters
You guessed it: A Michigan woman from Allegan County won $500k playing the “Ghostbusters” bingo scratch-off.
The 64-year-old woman, who remained anonymous, said she was shocked when she realized she had won big after purchasing the lucky ticket at a Marathon gas station on Allegan Street in Plainwell. In fact, she nearly had a heart attack.
“I scratched the ticket on break later that day, and I thought I won $500,” the woman said. “My coworker said: ‘You might want to look at that prize amount again.’ When I saw it was actually $500,000, I felt like I was going to have a heart attack!”
Now that she has made $500k off her small $5 investment, she plans to pay off her bills and live a little. Being honest with herself, though, she said she would save most of the money for when she retires.
“When I went into the gas station to buy a ticket on my way to work, the clerk and I were talking about retirement, the player told the Lottery. “When she handed me the ticket, she said: ‘Well, I hope this ticket helps with saving for retirement!’
It surely did.
North Carolina man loses his breath after winning $212,500 from Keno game
Richard Tyler Jr. had a remarkable experience playing #CarolinaKeno last Tuesday. Tyler, a regular at his local BP, celebrates a $212,500 win, the largest in Keno history. “When I saw how many I matched, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’” Congrats, Richard! https://t.co/DDffkjGJIo pic.twitter.com/3ZNAsf3NrK
— NC Education Lottery (@nclottery) February 12, 2024
Richard Tyler Jr. of Fayetteville has an out-of-body experience after he found out he won over $200k in the Carolina Keno game.
According to the North Carolina Lottery, this is the largest prize won in the game so far.
Tyler told North Carolina Lottery he needed a moment to calm down when he found out he had won the top prize.
“I had to sit down for a few minutes just to breathe,” Tyler recalled to the Lottery.
Tyler is an avid lottery player. The people who work at the store where he buys his tickets call him Keno.
In the particular instance that won him six figures, Tyler purchased a $20 Carolina Keno ticket and played for 10 shares at Gray’s Creek BP in Fayetteville, the Lottery said.
Tyler managed to match nine of the 10 numbers and won a decent amount of $4,250. But wait, the thrills continued as the 5X multiplier was drawn, and the prize increased to $212,500.
“When I saw how many I matched, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,'” Tyler told the Lottery. “I got kind of nervous.”
Lord have mercy; after he had paid his pound of flesh to the taxman, he walked out with a sizzling $151,943.
Being a man who’s tight with his family, Tyler wants to spread the wealth with his eight siblings.
Quotes of the week
“I don’t know if everyone appreciates the magnitude of the lottery opportunity. Americans spend over $100 billion — with a B — dollars a year on lottery tickets… and up until very recently that was through the incredibly archaic process of driving to the store, paying cash for a paper ticket, holding on to that ticket, and potentially redeeming it for a prize worth hundreds of millions of dollars. If you know anywhere else in the world that people are spending that amount of money in such a manual, analog fashion, let me know so I can invest in the digitization of that business, and that’s of course what’s happening in the online lottery space.”
— Sharp Alpha Advisors managing partner Lloyd Danzig on the Zero Latency podcast
“DraftKings’ broad footprint and exceptional mobile products present an opportunity to meaningfully expand the digital lottery vertical, and we could not be more excited to come together with DraftKings.”
— Jackpocket co-founder and CEO Peter Sullivan on his company’s acquisition by $DKNG
Best of the rest
$6 million instant winner: Ottawa County lottery club wins $6 million on instant ticket.
Vive le Québec libre: Quebec government says non to regulated gambling market.
Commit the crime and don’t worry about the time: Massachusetts store clerk admits to trying to cash customer’s $3M lottery ticket, is sentenced to probation.
That’ll make the ex jealous: Man wins $1M lottery jackpot three days after breakup.
Check the prize box and see you next week!
