Northeast Pa. lotto players take in over $2 million in prizes
Judging by this weekend's results, northeastern Pennsylvania is the place to play if you happen to enjoy taking a chance on the lottery.
A lucky lotto player in Lackawanna County has taken the biggest Fast Play prize awarded yet for the Pennsylvania Lottery's Top Dollar Game, while a Luzerne County Powerball with Powerplay ticket earned a lucky player a near-jackpot.
According to the Pennsylvania Lottery, a Fast Play ticket worth $1,926,996 was sold at Convenient Food Mart in Carbondale on Saturday, May 28. The retailer received a $10,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.
Meanwhile, a Powerball with Powerplay ticket matching four out of the five white balls drawn — 2-39-50-61-66 — in addition to the red Powerball, 15, was sold at Hazle Mini Mart in Hazle Township, winning the player $100,000. Hazle Mini Mart received a $500 bonus for selling the winning ticket.
Top Dollar is a $20 Fast Play game that offers progressive top prizes starting at $300,000. Fast Play games print on-demand from a Lottery sales terminal or self-service touch-screen vending terminal and are similar to scratch-off games, but without the need to scratch a ticket or wait for a drawing. To see if they have won, players simply review their ticket, scan it at a Lottery retailer, or scan it with the ticket checker feature on the Lottery's Official App.
Powerball is a draw game in which a customer selects five numbers from 1 to 69 for the white balls; then one number from 1 to 26 for the red Powerball. The Powerplay option multiplies the player's winnings by up to ten times a non-jackpot amount.
The Pennsylvania Lottery noted that without the $1 Powerplay option, the Powerball ticket purchased at Hazel Mini Mart would have been worth $50,000.
More than 26,000 other PA Lottery Powerball tickets won prizes of various amounts in the drawing, including more than 6,400 tickets purchased with Power Play and 3,700 tickets purchased with Double Play. Players are encouraged to check every ticket each time they play.
Those who earn a top-prize winning ticket should immediately sign the back of the ticket and contact the Lottery at 1-800-692-7481.
The Pennsylvania Lottery remains the only state lottery to direct all proceeds to programs that benefit older residents. Since ticket sales began in 1972, it has contributed more than $32.6 billion to fund property tax and rent rebates, transportation, care services, prescription assistance, and local services including senior centers and meals.
This article originally appeared on Pocono Record: PA lotto players win big money on Fast Play, Powerball games
