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SANTA CRUZ, California — A man who works three jobs to support his family — including one as a limousine driver — has won a $39 million jackpot in California's SuperLotto Plus. Clyde Persley, who is married with a 4-year-old daughter, turned in his winning ticket on Tuesday night and should get his first check for about $16 million in four to six weeks, said a California lottery spokeswoman. The 49-year-old Santa Cruz man operates candy-making machines for Santa Cruz Nutritionals, drives a limousine and picks up extra hours at a restaurant. -snip-

LONDON (Reuters) - A 74-year-old amateur gardener who scooped a 25 million pound lottery prize said Tuesday he would spend part of his winnings hiring an expert to learn how to grow better carrots. Brian Caswell said he had always struggled with the vegetable on the prize-winning allotment he maintains with his Joan, 71, in Halliwell, near Bolton. "I've been trying to grow carrots ever since I've been on that allotment and I've never had any success," he told reporters at a televised briefing.

PIERRE, S.D. -- A 23-year-old rancher whose family has fallen behind in their taxes and recently had a mobile home repossessed has claimed a $232.1 million Powerball jackpot on Friday, one of the largest undivided jackpots in U.S. lottery history.

The winner of the world's biggest lottery jackpot in last week's £110million EuroMillions draw did not find out for three days because she was ill with flu. The 25-year-old from Majorca discovered her massive win on Monday after she returned to work. She was still feeling ill but feared losing her job in the economic crisis gripping Spain. The woman, who has not been named, was eventually contacted by Jose Mieres, director of the website through which she bought her ticket. Enlarge Big EuroMillions draw was scooped on Friday - this is what £100m looks like He said: 'When she...

When Joe Denette realizes that he's won more than $75 million with the Virginia Lottery, it's not Disney World he's thinking about. Instead he puts the ticket away and comes to Richmond International Raceway to see the NASCAR race. The Virginia Lottery Executive Director Paula Otto presented Denette with his check for his winnings and says, "He had actually won those tickets a few days before so Joe, apparently you were on a lucky winning streak." Joe Denette is on a winning streak now, but earlier this year, he lost his job. He says, "It couldn't have come at a...

WASHINGTON - The attorney for an 82-year-old southeast Washington man has claimed the $144 million Powerball lottery jackpot for his client. David Wilmot, the attorney, said Monday he was accepting the money on behalf of Rockson LLC - a corporation created to protect the man's identity. The winning ticket in the April 8 drawing came from the Giant grocery store on Alabama Avenue in southeast D.C. The jackpot winner is a widower with 10 children and 47 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Wilmot says the man is taking the lump-sum payment of $79.6 million. -snip-

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Some of the same people who sell North Carolina Education Lottery tickets are also winning -- and winning big -- $100,000, $300,000 and almost $500,000 prizes. And some are winning significant jackpots repeatedly -- dozens of times a year. Is it just dumb luck? Or do these insiders have some kind of inside track? And what is the state doing about it? A regular lottery player first brought the pattern of retailers winning the lottery to the attention of the NewsChannel 36 I-Team. Since then the I-Team has pored over thousands of records of lottery winnings in...

See the warning the N.Y. lottery issued These were dispensed during Dateline's probe into shady clerk practice

"It's my duty to enforce the law," Attorney General Eric Holder proclaimed sanctimoniously when he announced his intention to investigate Bush administration lawyers whose advice might have led to coercive interrogations of terror suspects. He is quite correct that a country's laws must apply to all: high and low, Republican or Democrat, nobody can be exempt or the law will lose all respect. We are therefore confident that Mr. Holder's proposal to investigate the Bush officials is not a partisan witch hunt or a Stalinist purge of a previous regime, and that Mr. Holder will be equally diligent in investigating...

The California State lottery is apparently in the purview of the state's employees union, the Service Employees International Union. At least it is as far as the SEIU is concerned. Proving once again that unions think everything in the world is their business, the California SEIU has donated $300,000 to Proposition 1C, a ridiculous plan that would empower the state capitol at Sacramento to "borrow" up to $5 billion from state lottery coffers. Yes, I agree with you that the lottery should have nothing at all to do with an employees union. But if it means absconding with more money...

Lottery boss gave 100 tickets to state trooper, report says Tuesday, March 31, 2009 1:12 PM By James Nash THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Read the report * Click here to read the full report from the Ohio Inspector General's Office (PDF). The head of the Ohio Lottery improperly gave 100 lottery tickets to a state trooper who pulled him over near Mansfield, the state watchdog said today. The Ohio Inspector General's office faulted Michael A. Dolan, executive director of the Ohio Lottery, for giving the trooper 100 promotional lottery tickets after he was pulled over in January and not cited. Dolan,...

N.C. governor uses money from savings reserve for billsThe Associated Press March 11, 2009 BY GARY D. ROBERTSON RALEIGH - Gov. Bev Perdue took nearly $800 million in North Carolina's rainy-day reserve fund Wednesday to ensure the state has enough money to pay its bills, a move that divided legislative leaders over whether she can spend it. Perdue said she seized the savings reserve fund assembled by lawmakers as a "precautionary measure" to combat one of the sharpest declines in overall tax collections in recent state history. The governor said she would use $250 million of the $787 million immediately...

During her campaign for governor, Beverly Perdue often said she wanted take extra steps to ensure profits from the North Carolina Education Lottery were spent solely on education. She was worried lawmakers might tap the ready source of cash for something else. And less than two months in office, faced with a brutal economy that's sapping the state of revenue, both lottery critics and allies say she's become the prime example of her own fears. Perdue said last week she would use $87.6 million in lottery profits to ensure there's money available in the state's day-to-day operating accounts to pay...

Someone gets to sleep in Wednesday. New Jersey Lottery spokesman Dominick DeMarco says the one winning ticket in Tuesday's Mega Millions $212 million drawing was sold in Ocean County, New Jersey. DeMarco can't yet say where it was purchased. The person who holds it stands to earn about $8.1 million a year, before taxes, for the next 26 years as an annuity.

Indianapolis - A Hoosier Lottery winner's misfortune turned into a stroke of good luck for hundreds of bargain hunters. Faster auctioneers can set a price, merchandise is moving. From rugs to dishes to antique furniture, hundreds hoped to get their hands on a warehouse full of bargains. "It's actually $45. It retails for $600," said Steven Phan. "We've bought china cabinets, tables, lots of stuff," said Lisa Burton. The eclectic collection was up for sale to the highest bidder, but whose stuff is it anyway? "I know it was something to do with a lottery winner," said Joanie Schultz. "She...

Regardless of when a new budget deal gets passed, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger still is going to need help from California's voters to close the state's $42 billion budget gap, and that help may not be easy to come by. Although the Legislature spent the weekend in nearly continuous session, trying to find the votes to pass the new fiscal plan, legislators still face the prospect of putting billions of dollars in borrowing, revenue shifts and budget revisions on the ballot in a statewide special election later this year. "Several key components of the budget agreements need to go back to...

Abstract: This paper addresses whether receiving large cash prizes of up to $150,000 reduces bankruptcy. While one might hope that additional resources help individuals avert bankruptcy, there are reasons why this may not be the case. For example, if recipients have high discount rates, engage in mental accounting, become accustomed to a more expensive lifestyle, or consciously consume the winnings in the expectation that they will later file for bankruptcy anyway, then receipt of large lump sums may not reduce future bankruptcy filings. To address this question, we exploit a unique dataset of Florida lottery winners from 1993-2002 linked to...

Are the investment managers at the New York Lottery way behind the last curve or way ahead of the next one? The state lottery system is considering taking a page from the pension fund playbook and moving its $1.3 billion prize fund out of the safe haven of U.S. Treasuries and into stocks, bonds, real estate, and hedge funds, according to Bloomberg. It hopes to double its annual return to 8 percent and help replenish the empty coffers of the New York state budget. Either they think it's still 2004 or there's something they know about 2012 that the rest...

New York tells woman $5 million winning lottery ticket is a 'printing error.' How would you like to win $5 million, then be denied from collecting your prize? I think the state of New your should have to honor this ticket. Instead, they offered to give her the $20 back that she paid for the ticket. Watch video here The Intellectual Redneck

A few days ago, Maria Murray was counting the pennies and deciding that Christmas had to be cancelled. She warned her four children that she could not afford to buy them presents. They would probably not have been impressed to learn, therefore, that she had spent her last £5 on a lottery scratchcard at the local newsagent's. But she was firmly back in favour with her family yesterday after the card turned out to be worth a £1million jackpot. 'It was my last £5,' she said. 'It hasn't really sunk in that I've won - I don't know what I'll...

Thirteen people face charges after allegedly telling Fresno Lotto winners that they were losers, and then keeping the winnings for themselves. Undercover officers posing as customers turned in winning lottery tickets worth about $1,000.00 apiece at several Fresno convenience stores.

INDIANAPOLIS – Talk about a gift that keeps on giving! Not only did Lawrence and Terri Ragland of Georgetown win $2 million on a Scratch-off ticket, they won the top prize on a ticket Lawrence Ragland received as a Christmas gift - and then re-gifted the unscratched ticket to his wife for her birthday Jan. 1!

We will say up front that Obama’s actions subsequent to his election have been far less radical than we would have predicted (given the content of Dreams From My Father and Obama’s membership in a racist church). If, despite the very poor first impression he gave us during the campaign, he does a good job, we will acknowledge that he has exceeded our expectations. Obama must realize in turn, however, that fundraising through rigged online lotteries (this one is legal because it provides a way to enter without making a donation) undermines his credibility and reinforces negative expectations. This is...

A woman in Connecticut who checked her husband's lottery tickets weeks after his death has discovered he had won a $10 million (£6.9 million) jackpot. Donald Peters, 79, bought two tickets hours before his death from a heart attack on November 1 at a 7-Eleven grocery shop in the town of Danbury. But after the retired hat factory worker's death his wife, Charlotte, checked through his things and took the slips to the shop to check. On Friday she cashed in one of the tickets. "I'm numb," the 78-year-old said at the Connecticut Lottery headquarters. The tickets had been bought...

DANBURY, Conn. — On the day that Donald Peters died, he unknowingly provided financial security for his wife of 59 years and their family. Peters bought two Connecticut Lottery tickets at a local 7-Eleven store on Nov. 1 as part of a 20-year tradition he shared with his wife Charlotte. Later that day, the 79-year-old retired hat factory worker suffered a fatal heart attack while working in his yard in Danbury. -snip-

TROY — Four Piqua residents are suing their city co-workers who won the $207 million Mega Millions lottery earlier this month, claiming the winners didn't keep their word about sharing any winnings with all regular players. And they want $41 million. A lawsuit claiming breach of contract and conversion was filed Tuesday, Dec. 23, in Miami County Common Pleas Court by Doug Harter, Israel Carnes, Tammy K. Wright and Jon Litchfield, all of Piqua. Named as defendants are winners: Kenny Kirby, John Dembski, Richard Donnelly, James Montgomery, Cynthia Hershberger, Ritchie Williams, Scott Bradley, Dennis Steinke, Loyal Davis Jr., Rodney Stephenson,...

I'm a NYer. The Evil Conservative has lived here for more than 20 years and, despite the liberal politics, traffic, high taxes, and extremely high cost of living, every now and again I get a public reason to be proud of being one. Usually that happens when I'm traveling and someone starts to knock NY. That probably stirs the pride in anyone from anywhere. But as a NYer you get used to hearing about how awful your hometown is. I'm referring to the Queens supermarket clerk who returned a discarded $1 million lottery ticket to a 92 year old grandmother....

A 92-year-old great-grandmother from Queens accidentally discarded a winning $1 million scratch-off lottery ticket - but a scrupulous supermarket clerk saved the day. -snip The Far Rockaway woman scratched them, thought they were losers and asked the clerk to toss them.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers may be banking long-term budget strategies on a revamped state lottery producing enhanced revenues. But for now, sales from the existing California Lottery are sputtering compared to a year ago, the state lottery commission learned this week. Lottery ticket sales, including Super Lotto Plus, Mega Millions, Fantasy 5 and scratcher games, dropped by 10 percent during the first four months of the fiscal year beginning July 1. The $985 million in ticket sales represented a $105 million drop in sales compared with the same period last year. Lottery officials blamed the economic downturn for...

Coincidences happen. If there is a FReeper mathematician, please find the odds for the exact three numbers, that particular day, and that particular state.

Just thought this sort of interesting. Check out the evening pick three numbers on 11-05-2008, the day after an Illinois resident was elected president of U.S.A. Weird huh?

On his radio program, just a few moments ago, Mike Gallagher pointed out that in the great State of Illinois, the day after Senator Barack Obama became President-elect Barack Obama, the official pick-three lottery numbers were - no kidding - 6-6-6. Here’s the link. I am not superstitious, and I don’t interpret the triple-six result as any sort of indication that the anti-Christ has arrived and will soon be occupying the White House. I just found it funny. And worth mentioning.

Do any attorneys want to weigh in on this question? The Obama campaign has already been warned by law enforcement agencies against running "Backstage with Barack" and "Dinner with Barack" lotteries in Minnesota and possibly Colorado. Minnesota's Department of Public Safety counseled Obama for America to provide a means of entering to win a chance to meet Barack Obama without making a donation, which would remove the "payment of consideration" element that makes the scheme an illegal lottery. The Obama campaign agreed to do so, but it apparently broke this promise as of October 31 2008. We are not attorneys...

Unauthorized lotteries are illegal in most jurisdictions, and it is illegal to promote them through the U.S. Mail. The Obama campaign has already been warned by law enforcement officials against running lotteries in Minnesota. Minnesota's Department of Public Safety counseled Obama for America allow entry without making a donation... The Obama campaign agreed to do so, but it broke this promise to Minnesota's law enforcement agencies as of October 31 2008. We are not attorneys and cannot give legal advice, but Missouri's definition of illegal gambling is typical of that in most states. Bracketed material relates these definitions to the...

Gambling, with only a few exceptions, is illegal in Missouri. Those exceptions are restricted and highly regulated. There are many types of gambling. Promotions that award prizes may be called contests, sweepstakes, lotteries, raffles, drawings or games. It is important to know the law and to understand what elements make a promotion illegal. Three elements make up an illegal promotion: 1. Prize is any benefit, cash or property awarded to a winner. 2. Chance means the winner is chosen by “luck” with little or no skill or ability involved. 3. Consideration is the exchange of something of value for the...

We reported at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2121219/posts that the Obama campaign has sent out another E-mail fundraising solicitation that could potentially be an illegal lottery. Minnesota law enforcement had previously warned the campaign against this practice. Note that a lottery consists of: (1) Payment of consideration (like a donation). The activity is not, however, a lottery if it is possible to enter without payment of money. The latest E-mail from Obama does not apparently offer this option. (2) A prize (expenses-paid trip to Chicago for election night) (3) An element of chance (random drawing) We are not, however, on the Obama campaign's postal...

Law enforcement warned the Obama campaign against running lotteries, but Obama is doing it again anyway. We encourage our readers to report this Web page to their states' gambling law enforcement agencies. (Google cache of the Web page touting the lottery) Obama camp's illegal lottery modified: Campaign's promotion strayed into definition of banned gambling reports, Democrat Barack Obama's presidential campaign has moved quickly to fix a promotion that strayed into the area of illegal gambling after WND broke the story on the activity. The campaign was offering a chance to be picked for a trip to the Democratic National Convention...

I got this in my email box: pauly -- I want you to be there with me on Election Night when the results come in. We're planning a big event that will include tens of thousands of supporters in Grant Park in downtown Chicago. We're saving some of the best seats in the house for 5 people who make their first donation to the campaign before Sunday at midnight. If you're selected, you can bring a guest, and we'll fly you in and put you up in a hotel for the night. You'll go backstage at the big event and...

If the first winner of the "$1 million a year for life" scratch-off game seemed less than ecstatic yesterday, it's because he wasn't exactly struggling to scratch out a living. Keenan Altunis, 33, a banker raised on Long Island and now living in London, accepted his prize with a smug shrug, noting he's already a multimillionaire. "Is it going to materially change my life? No," he told The Post. "I have been a very blessed and fortunate person."

GREAT BEND, Kan. — A Kansas man whose girlfriend was physically stuck to the toilet in their home wins $20,000 in the state Lottery — for the second time this year.

Critics of the lottery call it nothing more than a scam that sells hopes and dreams to the poor. Is this true? Does the lottery target the poor? See for yourself here in this installation of "Geeks on Caffeine." Note: The author requests that you visit his web site and refrain from pasting the cartoon within the thread. Thanks!

He — Ray Otero, superintendent, ordinary luckless guy — should have the cash, the car, the sexy Swedish girlfriend. The numbers alone demanded it: Last year, he spent $30,000 on the lottery. The winner, Richie Randazzo, spent a measly thirty bucks or so a week. “When I heard he won, I got so mad — I said to myself, ‘I can’t believe it,’ ” Mr. Otero said the other day, recalling how the television crews descended on his friend in a free-for-allish media display. “I spend all that money and the” — unprintable fellow — “wins? It’s wrong. I mean,...

On Oct. 3, 1985, you could have stood in a long line outside a liquor store a few blocks from the Capitol for a chance to buy a small piece of cardboard and win a big sum of money. Today, you can do the same thing – only with no line. That, in 50 words, is the story of the California Lottery – a 23-year-old anachronism that is among the worst performing of the country's 42 state lotteries. While many other states' lotteries set sales records in the fiscal year that ended June 30, California lottery officials announced that revenues...

SACRAMENTO – Seven years of deficits have left the state budget so far out of balance that a Republican legislative leader is saying that closing a huge budget gap with cuts alone is unworkable. Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto said he remains staunchly opposed to tax increases and is now proposing that the state borrow – possibly from funds for local government, transportation and other programs – and quickly repay the loans with money from bonds backed by the lottery. “What we would like to do is see the state get its spending in line with its revenue,”...

The victim told deputies she turned $20,000 over to a man she met on a Corona street corner Tuesday morning after he told her he had a winning lottery ticket but could not cash it because he had no papers and could not find the Mexican consulate.

Barack and Michelle Obama’s personal statements deceive prospective donors Despite at least one (and possibly more) complaints from Minnesota law enforcement agencies, the Obama campaign is still circulating E-mails that solicit donations in exchange to win an expenses-paid trip to the Democratic National Convention. Were it not for the very fine print disclaimers in the E-mails and on the donation page itself, this would very likely constitute an illegal lottery. In other words, the Obama campaign is doing the absolute minimum it thinks it needs to do to stay out of actual trouble with the law. In addition, a video...

" NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - When it comes to purchasing lottery tickets, making people feel poor will prompt them to spend more money on a chance to become rich, American researchers said. They found that people who were convinced they were earning a low salary bought nearly twice as many lottery tickets compared to others who were made to feel more affluent. "When people are made to feel subjectively poor, they end up buying more lottery tickets which is somewhat perverse since every time you buy a lottery ticket, it's the equivalent of burning money," said George Loewenstein, a...

Campaign tries to keep supporters from seeing controversy over fundraising lottery We reported previously (http://husaria.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/were-obamas-lottery-winners-picked-in-advance/) that the Obama campaign, in response to complaints from Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety, modified its fundraising lottery to allow people to enter without making a donation. It was the opinion of Minnesota law enforcement that, prior to this change, the need to make at least a small donation in exchange for a chance toan expenses-paid trip to the Democratic National Convention constituted an illegal lottery. There is also a question as to whether the winners were really picked randomly, noting that a previous lottery...

Is it normal to name lottery winners before the entry deadline? We previously reported (http://husaria.wordpress.com/2008/07/19/did-the-obama-campaign-violate-lottery-laws/) that the Obama campaign has, on at least three occasions, conducted what are allegedly illegal lotteries. The E-mail and online solicitations included: 1. Payment of consideration, in the form of a donation of at least some money. 2. An element of chance 3. A prize (expenses-paid trip to have dinner with Obama or meet Obama at the Democratic National Convention Only after Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety (law enforcement) complained to the Obama campaign that it was running a potentially illegal lottery (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=69150) did the...

Were the winners really picked at random? One winner was announced before the entry deadline! WorldNetDaily reported recently that the Obama campaign was contacted by Minnesota's Department of Public Safety with regard to a fundraising solicitation that could be construed as an illegal lottery. The E-mail, which we also received, seems to contain the three elements that constitute a lottery: 1. Payment of consideration (a monetary donation) 2. An element of chance 3. A prize (all-expenses paid trip to the Democratic National Convention and a personal meeting with Barack Obama While we are not attorneys and cannot give legal advice,...