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Subscribe to RSSA Glendale, Ariz., man who played the same numbers on six Powerball tickets didn't win the big jackpot but nabbed a $1 million second-place prize for each ticket for a total of $6 million, Arizona Lottery officials said this week.
The winner, who elected to remain anonymous, claimed the prizes in three visits to the lottery's Phoenix office, according to a lottery statement.
The win came in the April 25 Powerball drawing.
The winning numbers were 4-25-29-34-43, with Powerball 29. The Glendale man won the second-place prize by matching all five numbers but not the Powerball. Azcentral.com reports that the tickets were bought at a QuikTrip store.
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There was one winning ticket in that April 25 drawing -- the $172.7 million prize went to a bunch of Philadelphia transit workers known as the SEPTA 48.
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This guy is clearly a time-traveler. Why else would someone buy 6 tickets with the same numbers?
Good one Scuby..!!
Maybe he saw it in his dream.
Sorry, this needs to be investigated. No one is THAT @!$%#ing lucky! I agree with others, that is not improving odds. No one would waste $6 unless they knew something beforehand.
Something smells fishy here. I think there needs to be an investigation. It makes absolutely no sense for someone to buy six tickets all with the same numbers. This really makes it look like the game was somehow rigged. Maybe they thought they would get away with it by not going for the big prize and settling for a few million. I maybe could understand two tickets if you bought a second one forgetting you had already purchased a ticket for the drawing, but six with the same numbers does not make any sense.
For those of you who are seeing a conspiracy/rigged game here, ponder this...........
If he knew what the first five numbers were going to be then he could have just bought them 35 times- one for each possible powerball (1-35). The end result would have had him splitting the $172 million jackpot with the eventual winners from Philadelphia.
I saw one guy buying 2 tickets with the exact same numbers once. He told the clerk his reason was in case he won, 1 ticket for himself, 1 for his wife.
People are goofy...
If he hod bought six tickets with six different sets of numbers, and if one of them hit he would have won $1 Million.
He bought six tickets with the same (winning) set of numbers and won $6 Million. Do any of you wish to modify your thinking regarding the logic used by this player?
In my mind -- especially considering the astronomical odds against winning anything -- six chances at $6 Million is better than six chances at $1 Million. Clearly HE thought so, too.
Nah, a lot of people play the same number for years and years, often for sentimental reasons ie., a grandchild's birthday. Also agree with cmdr - if he knew, why not buy more tickets? The smartest thing this guy did was to stay anonymous.
It's pretty common for people to play the same numbers on multiple tix, this one just got really lucky.
Yes, it's common to buy multiple tickets with same number, but most people bought maybe 2 or 3. However, the problem is with 6, that is far out for most people to be so confident enough to buy 6 tickets.
In this case, he must be really confident with the numbers to buy 6 times, so therefore must be something wrong with the system. Either he figures the math based on this which mostly not going to happen or the system is rigged that day which more likely to happens.
He bought 6 tickets with the same first 5 numbers. Then the 6th (Powerball) number was different for each ticket. He didn't buy the exact same number 6 times. If he had gotten the powerball on one of them he would have split the 172million jackpot with the ticket holder who won, plus gained an additional 5million on top for holding 5 tickets that had the 5 winning numbers.
cmdr358 - very logical, I was thinking the same thing!
Robert -- your math logic is off.
He didn't have 6 chances at $6 million vs 6 chances at $1 million. It is mathematically 1 chance at $6 million vs 6 chances at $1 million.
Thank you Joey...I was about to correct that myself.
You guys are forgetting that most of the prizes are constant (not split). Only the big prizes are split. So mathematically your expected winnings are really close to the same. And if you did win the jackpot, you'd still get a larger share than everyone else.
So while it seems really weird to do it, it makes just as much sense as any other numbers to play.
I think the reason that people are psychologically adverse to the idea is that if you lose you lose all, and if you win you win all. So your winnings will be more "lumpy". But in terms of average and expected winnings it is the same, or at least very, very close.
good for him!
drew-2920352 is correct, it's called wheeling (horse race lingo) the powerball... the problem is he just didn't wheel all "powerball" numbers or he would have won big azz money.
Good for him. May he enjoy his winnings and use them wisely.
b, one of the more sensible comments made here
Glad he was VERY lucky. But he must have also have money to blow, being that a Powerball ticket NOW cost $2 bucks! So just for this one shot he spent $12, but how often was he spending that with 2 drawings a week.
Who buys tickets with the same numbers? Isn't the point of multiple tickets to improve your chances of winning???
The guy who just won 6 million buckaroos. Easy to criticize someone's methods when you're not the one holding the lucky tickets.
It's rigged somehow, simple as that. In Vietnam, there is a case of this happening and I don't doubt that it will happens in some other countries.
When the money is really big, people will try to do anything for it.
Yes, he won 6 millions with 6 ticket, we are not jealous of that, we just somehow try to use logic to understand how he can be sure to buy it not 1 or 2 or 3 times, but 6 times.
Six tickets with the same five standard numbers. The PB numbers were all different. Therefor, he bought six tickets with six different numbers.
Why is this so hard to understand for some of you?
Click the second link in the article for clarification if you need it. Heck, I'll just copy and paste it for you.
That still leave the fact that he is so confident of the first 5 numbers to buy 6 tickets. There must be something that he knows to do that, most people just buy 2 or 3 with skeptical in mind.
Ever notice that almost every year there is a big lotto prize build up before Christmas, and it is almost always won in a drawing sometime Christmas week.
He sure had a lot of confidence in the five primary numbers, maybe he thought "only" six tickets with the winning numbers all held by the same person wouldn't draw any attention.
Buying the same numbers every week is one thing, buying six tickets all with the same numbers in one drawing is ?????? odd?????
One would tell him he is so lucky he should play the lottery, but ?????
NYMike, it's called lack of reading comprehension. No cure for it.
The irony is that if the SEPTA 48 actually consist of 48 members, this guy will walk away with more money that the winners of the big prize.
ScubaSteve--what a fab idea! Dr. Who strikes it rich!
Good for you .... keep playing but don't play the 3 digit 444 box
The get 6 million instead of 1 million obviously :)
News flash: Glendale, Ariz. man can now afford therapy sessions to treat short-term memory problem.
THAT's a good one!
(candidate for funniest post of the year)
I guess the winner was John Titor.
-
Damn, I'm jealous......times 6
He would have had much better odds at winning the biggest prize by picking different numbers. Yet being stupid paid off for him.
Jane, obviously he was not so stupid. By the way, don´t you think the name calling is a bit stupid?
Actually Marty, he is stupid. This is luck based, buying something 6 times will have 1 chance instead of 6 different numbers with 6 chances.
Now, somehow he bought not 1 or 2, but 6 tickets, then there must be something fishy here.
Nothing fishy guy only had six bucks so thought he would spend it and follow his gut feelings (sarcasm)
I would remain anonymous too if I was idiot enough to buy six tickets with the same number on them.
CAMark, You should have remained anonymous with that comment.
Many people buy multiple tickets with the first five numbers identical. It's probable that he played six different red Power Ball numbers and none of them was 29. He likely had a system that indicated the five most likely numbers, and then paired them with the Powerball numbers he thought most likely. The white balls were correct, but the red was not. He had six distinct combinations, no worse than any other six distinct combos. A
A large number of people do this...but the lottery is tough to crack, that's why you don't see these at-first-glance bizzare stories very often.
You make a a great point. I should have read all the comments prior to making the one that I made above.
Exactly what I thought.......and I do not even play.
This chump has got to be the luckiest dude alive! Way to go pal! :)
Maybe he marked his card wrong. Instead of six consecutive draws it came up as six draws on the same night.
Im with hopeful, makes the most sense.
No not 6 million, you all forgot the tax man he gets his piece first,, he might go home with about 3 million....
How much did you go home with Robert?????
Lottory taxes are 38%. So he'll go home with $3,720,000. I personally wouldn't complain about 'only' winning 3.7million heh.
Now he can buy a new flux capacitor to get back.
Nice! LOL!
Sounds fishy. More to come on that story I'll bet.
Here is the logic for why somebody might want to play multiple lottery tickets with the same numbers. I'm not saying it's advisable, just plausible.
For this illustration, disregard factors like taxes or group purchases. It doesn't change the logic I'm explaining:
*********
When a lottery has only one winning ticket, then of course the holder of that one ticket wins the whole jackpot. A $60 million jackpot "split" amongst one winning ticket means that each winning ticket share is worth $60 million.
If there were two winning tickets, then each winning ticket share gets $30 million. One person in Phoenix gets $30 million dollars, and one person in Tucson gets $30 million.
So far so good. Now let's get to my example:
If there are three winning tickets, then each winning ticket share gets $20 million. If there's one person in Phoenix with a winning ticket, he/she gets $20 million. If there's one other person in Tucson with a winning ticket, then he/she also gets $20 million. And a third winning-ticket holder in Flagstaff will also get $20 million.
Ahhhh, but what if the person in Tucson actually bought 2 tickets with the exact same numbers? Then that means there is one winning ticket in Phoenix, two winning tickets in Tucson, and one winning ticket in Flagstaff. That means the $60 million is split into four shares because there are FOUR WINNING TICKETS. The Phoenix players get $15 million. The Tucson player gets $30 million because he/she holds TWO OF THE FOUR winning tickets. The Flagstaff player gets $15 million.
So by purchasing multiple lottery tickets with the same numbers, the player increases his/her potential share of the overall jackpot **in the event that multiple players hold the same winning numbers**.
If a person purchases multiple lottery tickets with the same numbers and is the ONLY WINNER, then the person has lost just an extra dollar or so for the wasted multiple ticket. But if there are multiple winners, then the "multiple lottery tickets" strategy does benefit the player.
Is the worth it? I don't think so. But it's perfectly reasonable for somebody to want to put that strategy into action.
It's a trade-off, messin' with the odds to sweeten the pot.
Except he played six different powerball numbers.
If he used the power play he would have 12,000,000. before taxes. After taxes $79.22.
Asked what the 1st thing he would do: "Move out of Arizona!!"
Hey...don't laff...It can happen...I was a math major in college..and what he did makes perfect sense to me anyway..
he just bought 6 tickets with the same numbers and he happened to hit it...
Whats all the whining about? because you didn't win it? or think of it?
Obama needs to order the government to seize all those lottery winnings from the Grand Prize winners and this guy who won $6 million.
...only HE can fairly redistribute the wealth!
How's a life full of political hate working for you?
Must be exhausting to tie the President into every article in a hateful manner.
some peoples kids...
All you conspiracy nuts are ridiculous. Just plain effing stupid, actually. Nice win dude.
Wow... MSNCommunity can't think can they... I do the same thing when I buy my MegaMillions tickets the first 5 numbers (IE: 01, 05, 09, 18, 24) are always the same and I just pick 5 different MegaBall numbers. So my tickets look like this;
01 05 09 18 24 36
01 05 09 18 24 37
01 05 09 18 24 38
01 05 09 18 24 39
01 05 09 18 24 40
This does not help your odds of winning in any way, or hurt your odds, but what it does do is make it so if you win the 2nd place you don't just walk away with 1million, you get a cool 5million. So yeah, what this guy probably did was the same thing but with 6 tickets. Jeez.. you people are blind.