Palmer Lewis of Haw River said he’s making big plans after he won a $25,000 a year for life Lucky For Life prize.

“This is going to be life-changing,” Lewis said. “Right now I have a 98’ Ford. I’m going to get a new car, maybe a van. Something that’s easier for me to get in and out of. I’m also going to fix up my home.”

Using his own numbers, Lewis bought the ticket for Thursday’s drawing at the Food Lion on South Main Street in Graham.

“I knew I should’ve waited until the morning to check the numbers,” Lewis said. “I couldn’t sleep after I checked them I was so excited. I only slept for an hour and a half.”

He claimed his prize Friday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. He had the choice of getting $25,000 a year, every year, for the rest of his life or a lump sum of $390,000. He chose the lump sum and, after federal and state tax withholdings, he took home $274,954.

The $2 ticket beat odds of one in 1.8 million to win the game’s second prize of $25,000 a year for life. So far, two North Carolinians have won the top prize, $1,000 a day for life, and 17 tickets have won the second prize. There are 10 ways to win a prize playing Lucky For Life.

A Marshall County couple arrived at the Kansas Lottery headquarters in Topeka on June 28, 2018 to claim their Lucky for Life top prize of $1,000 a day for life! The winners, who chose to remain anonymous, matched all five numbers and the Lucky Ball on a Quick Pick ticket in Monday’s June 25th Lucky for Life drawing.

“For ten years now, we’ve bought tickets twice a week for the draw games,” said the winners. “For some games we pick our own numbers, and on other games we just do Quick Picks. We’re glad we did a Quick Pick this time for sure!”

The couple didn’t check their tickets until Wednesday, even though they knew that someone had won the big prize.

“I got a push notification on my phone that the Lucky for Life top prize was hit in Kansas, but I didn’t check it against my numbers. I just went to work,” said the winner. “We keep all of our tickets on a clip next to the refrigerator, and we check them once or twice a week.”

“When we finally remembered to check the tickets, I saw that Lucky for Life ticket and figured out that we were the winner. I showed my wife, and then she made me check it one more time. We couldn’t believe it at first,” said the winner. “It still hasn’t fully sunk in yet. It truly is a life-changing thing, and we just had it clipped next to the fridge for a couple days,” the winners said with a laugh.

The couple opted to take the cash option instead of the annuity prize, which is $5.75 million dollars before taxes. The prize is large enough for both of them to consider retiring early and quitting their jobs.

“We’re both close enough to retirement that this win will make it possible for us to retire early,” the winner said. “Now we just have to figure out what we’re going to do with our spare time!”

The couple said they plan to use their newfound free time and money to get back into old hobbies and to take a few trips they’ve been putting off.

“We don’t really know what the future holds for us,” the winners said. “But we’ve got a lot to think about, and plenty of options. It’s a great problem to have!”

The winning ticket was sold at CJ Express 1 at 1202 11^th Road in Marysville.

Kenneth Mailloux of Dracut, Massachusetts is the winner of a $25,000 a year for life second-tier Lucky For Life prize after the numbers on his ticket matched those drawn in the multi-state game’s Monday, May 21st drawing.

Mailloux chose the cash option on his prize and received a one-time payment of $390,006 (less tax withholdings). He plans on using part of his winnings to help his family.

Mailloux purchased his winning ticket at George’s Cafe, 570 Textile Ave. in Dracut.

COLUMBIA, SC (June 1, 2018) – A Sumter man wins $25,000 a year for LIFE after purchasing a Lucky for Life ticket from Mozingos Grocery at 3350 N. Main Street in Sumter.

The ticket matched the first five numbers drawn in the May 28th drawing. The winner had the choice between $25,000 a year for life or a one-time cash payment of $390,000 if there are less than 21 winners. The “for life” prize is payable for the length of the winner’s natural life, with payments guaranteed for a minimum of 20 years.

Lucky for Life – Monday, May 28, 2018
4, 6, 13, 16, and 32 Lucky Ball: 7

The winner decided to take the one-time payout.

The Sumter man discovered his win at a retailer. The clerk told him, “You’ve got to go to Columbia.” The winner replied, “For what?” The clerk said, “You just hit a jackpot!” The winner didn’t let it go to his head and calmly said, “Well, okay then.” He told lottery officials he hasn’t visited Columbia since 2006.

The winner plans to pay off his home and put the rest in the bank.

The odds of winning $25,000 a year for life are 1 in 1,813,028.

Lucky for Life is a multi-state game offered in 26 jurisdictions. Tickets cost $2 with drawings on Mondays and Thursdays. South Carolina began selling Lucky for Life tickets in January 2015. In addition to the $25,000 a year for life prize, players can also win $1,000 a day for life and eight additional prizes.

Congratulations to the Maine Lottery on their eighth $25,000 a YEAR for LIFE win, following Lucky for Life®’s drawing on March 22, 2018! There were also fifteen lucky $5,000 wins in Colorado, Delaware, Kansas, Kentucky(2), Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan(3), New Hampshire, Ohio(2), South Carolina and Vermont.

The winning numbers were: 9 – 17 – 27 – 29 – 31 LB: 16

Check your tickets! Follow along on Facebook and Twitter for the latest Lucky for Life® updates.

Michael Davenport, 64, of Louisville, is the Kentucky Lottery’s newest Lucky For Life winner!  Davenport matched the first five numbers but not the Lucky Ball to win the game’s second prize of $25,000 a year for life on the February 26^th drawing.

Davenport, a retired machinist, checked his ticket the following morning while at home.  He pulled up the winning numbers on his phone and saw several of his numbers matched – but he had no idea how much he’d won. “I zoomed in on the screen and rubbed my eyes to make sure I was seeing it right,” he told lottery officials.

Davenport then drove to a nearby Thorntons to have his ticket checked.  The clerk scanned it and handed it back telling him it was for more than $600, which is the most they can pay.   “I had no clue how much I’d won.  I thought maybe $1,000,” he said.

The Okolona man then presented his ticket at Kentucky Lottery headquarters just a short time later.  “I asked the woman at the window how much I’d won, and she said $500,000.  I began to walk away when I stopped and turned around, and said to her, “Excuse me?  She said $500,000 a second time and I just couldn’t believe it,” Davenport said.

He sat down in the lobby and began texting his wife.  He told her where he was and sent photos of the winning numbers and his ticket.   She was at work and most likely was unable to respond right away.

Davenport chose to take the lump sum amount of $390,000.  After taxes, he received $273,000.

The couple have six children, 17 grandchildren and one great-grandchild on the way.  He is excited to be able to pay off the couple’s house.

The winning ticket was purchased at Pic Pac on Blue Lick in Louisville.  The retailer will get a bonus of $5,000 for selling the ticket.

An Iowa City grandfather who claimed a prize of $25,000 a year for life says a fortune cookie predicted his big lottery win.

Charles “Chuck” Svatos said he bought a fortune cookie while he was at a Quad Cities casino last month and the message inside the cookie said, “You will discover an unexpected treasure.”

Svatos, a retired dairy production worker, claims the “treasure” the fortune cookie spoke of was his lottery prize of $25,000 a year for life he won in the Sept. 25 Lucky for Life® drawing. He still carries his fortune from that cookie with him in his wallet and shared it with lottery employees on Tuesday, October 3, as he claimed his prize at the Iowa Lottery’s headquarters.

“It’s hard to believe a fortune cookie, you can never believe them most of the time,” Svatos said.

Svatos’ ticket matched the first five numbers but missed the Lucky Ball in that drawing to win the game’s second prize of $25,000 a year for life. He bought his winning ticket at Gasby’s, 1 Hawkeye Drive in North Liberty, a convenience store he stops at most Sundays for coffee and to buy lottery tickets. Gasby’s will receive a $500 bonus from the lottery for selling the winning ticket at one of its stores.

The winning numbers in that night’s Lucky for Life drawing were: 14-17-19-30-48 and Lucky Ball 4.

He said he found out that he won when he had his ticket checked at Gasby’s about a week after the drawing and kept the news to himself.

“Just the guy that sold me the ticket. He’s the only one that knew,” Svatos said.

Svatos later told his daughter, Doris Baxter of North Liberty, that he won and asked her if she could go with him to claim his prize. She agreed and accompanied her father through the prize claim process at the lottery Tuesday.

Svatos said he always picks his own numbers, but he doesn’t stick to one set of numbers and the numbers he uses are not significant to him.

“I just pick them at random,” he said.

Players can win Lucky for Life’s top prize of $1,000 a day for life by matching all six numbers selected in one of its drawings. The game’s second prize – for matching the first five numbers but missing the Lucky Ball – is $25,000 a year for life. The game’s top two prize levels are described as “lasting as long as you do” meaning that they are truly for life. The minimum guaranteed payout for those two prize levels is 20 years, and there is a lump-sum option for players who prefer that.

Svatos, 92, chose to receive his prize as a lump sum of $390,000. He said he plans to use a portion of his winnings to travel possibly to Hawaii and Switzerland in the future.

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Brian Quinlan of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, is the winner of a $25,000 a year for life prize in the multi-state “Lucky for Life®” game’s July 13, 2017 drawing.