The Lotto Matrix: Beginner’s Luck, White Elephants, Shaq, and More

First things first

How much is Friday’s Mega Million jackpot drawing worth? The drawing has cracked nine figures and offers a $113.2 million jackpot with a $49.2 million cash option. There have been four drawings in the new year without a grand prize winner and only one $1 million winning ticket drawn in 2025.

How much is Saturday’s Powerball jackpot drawing worth? The grand prize increased to $331 million with a $145.1 million cash option after another two drawings provided another two rollovers. There have been 16 rollovers after Wednesday’s drawing since a winning ticket was sold in New York for the $256 million jackpot — $123.5 million cash value — on Dec. 7.

Father-son bonding at its best

Jarrett Allen never played the lottery before going with his father to the Riverside General Store on U.S. 19 East in Burnsville, N.C., on Jan. 9, and he may never have to again after winning the last $5 million top prize in the 200X Cash the Ticket game offered by the North Carolina Lottery.

Accompanied by his father, who picked the ticket, Allen said he was in disbelief when he discovered he won. Allen then had to make a tough decision at lottery headquarters the next day: Take a lump sum of $3 million or a $250,000 annuity for 20 years.

He opted for the lump sum, resulting in a windfall of nearly $2.2 million. Allen said he will take the winnings to help out his parents and make some investments. Because Allen claimed the sixth and last $5 million top prize, the North Carolina Lottery will begin winding down Cash the Ticket.

When the elephant in the room is a lucky one

Who says you can’t give lottery tickets as a “White Elephant” holiday gift? Emily Hickox of Indiana won $500,000 on a Detroit Lions instant game ticket via the Michigan Lottery.

How did a Hoosier Girl win a Wolverine State-based contest, you ask? It was a gift exchange as part of a family Christmas party. Hicox originally won a flashlight in the gift exchange bought by her father, who won the lottery ticket from a cousin.

Hickox explained her father wanted the flashlight back, and she agreed. The swap then led to one of the now 25-year-old’s best birthday presents of all time as she scratched off the $5 ticket on her birthday, which also happens to be Christmas Day.

“I was expecting to see $50,000, so when I saw the extra zero, I was speechless,” Hickox told WJRT-TV. “I couldn’t comprehend that I’d just won $500,000.”

The winning ticket was sold at a Meijer store in Rockford, just north of Grand Rapids. Hickox plans to give herself one other Christmas/birthday present: a new car.

Shaq Scratch Fever

All-time NBA great and Newark native Shaquille O’Neal has teamed with the New Jersey Lottery for a new scratch-off game, “Jersey Giant Winnings.”

The $5 scratch-off has a top prize of $200,000 — good for at least a handful of Fu-Schnickens CDs — and 4.2 million tickets were printed. Folks in the Garden State will see the “Big Aristotle” on touch vending screens at retail locations across the state, and the 7-foot-1 O’Neal also cut a commercial to mark the giant occasion.

Lobsters and lottery tickets

As the newly minted aggregator of the Lotto Matrix, I’ve spent some time tooling around various state lottery websites. There are some universals all states have and some quirky features very few have.

Take Maine. In clicking their “unclaimed prizes” link for Instant Games, I expected to see a list of unclaimed prizes with winning tickets. However, the Maine Lottery also has a comprehensive list of its current instant games offerings with the dollar amount of unclaimed prizes YET to be won and the percentage of tickets unsold.

For example, the $3 Maine Crossword game had more than $9.1 million in prizes available, including 24 top prizes of $30,000 as of 5 a.m. ET Friday morning. Additionally, the Maine Lottery provides the amount of tickets printed for each instant game when clicking on the specific scratch-off.

Only 22.4% of the 5.4 million Maine Crossword tickets have been played. Studying the list offers the potential to improve a player’s chances of winning based on supply and available remaining prizes.

Newsworthy nuggets

“Florida Man” strikes again: The Orange County Sheriff’s Office near Orlando arrested a man allegedly caught on camera trying to rob an 83-year-old woman of her lottery winnings at a convenience store.

Authorities released the surveillance footage of Ruth Moore walking to her car with what appeared to be her $200 in winnings. It then showed a man, later identified as Diego Stalin Tavarez Fleury, walking towards Moore and trying to forcibly take her winnings.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office reported Tavarez was arrested Thursday and faces robbery and battery charges.

More Christmas season birthday magic: A Greensboro, N.C., woman won $110,000 matching all five numbers from a drawing conducted on her birthday Dec. 23. She chose the numbers based on family members’ birthdays.

IGT attains iCAP status: IGT announced it became the first gaming industry suppler to receive the Internet Compliance Assessment Program Ready accreditation for its iLottery operations from the National Council on Problem Gaming. The U.S.-based accreditation program is designed for suppliers committed to upholding responsible gaming standards for their products and services.

I’m a Malbec and Edam man, myself: The International House of Wine and Cheese in McHenry, Ill., sold a winning $500,000 Lucky Day Lotto ticket Sunday. The winner matched the five numbers for the evening drawing run by the Illinois Lottery. The grand prize reset to $100,000, and the jackpot increases by $50,000 each drawing without a top prize winner.

“Everyone at our store is so excited,” store owner Tom Jiaras told the Crystal Lake-Cary Patch. “I’m especially happy for the lucky customer who won the jackpot. I hope they come back and tell us so we can share in their joyful moment, and maybe even get a picture together.”

Until next week, dream big, check your numbers, and play responsibly!