5 Jan
A Massachusetts man hit it big on the state’s Lucky for Life lottery game after purchasing six tickets with identical numbers, a windfall worth more than $2 million.
Raymond Roberts Sr. chalked up his bonanza to intuition, deciding to purchase half a dozen tickets with the same numbers. As many lottery players do, the Vietnam veteran chose a combination of birthdays and anniversary dates of loved ones when selecting his numbers.
Roberts’ jackpot occurred on the drawing date of December 14. He matched the first five numbers on six tickets on the multi-state $25,000 Lucky for Life daily game.
The Lucky for Life game’s promoted payout is $25,000 a year for the duration of a winner’s life, with a minimum of 20 annual payments. Roberts elected to accept that payout scheme on only one of his winning tickets.
On the other five winning tickets, he chose the immediate cash payout option of $390,000. That totals $1,950,000 before the tax man comes calling.
Also benefiting from Roberts’ intuition was Royal Liquors on Main Street in Fall River, MA. The winning tickets were purchased there, resulting in a $5K payout on each ticket for the store proprietor, a total of $30,000.
Lucky for Life lottery tickets cost $2 each. While Robert’s $12 investment resulted in a fantastic ROI, he told lottery officials that he’s been playing the same numbers for over 20 years without any significant returns – until this year.
Purchasers of Lucky for Life tickets choose five numbers from 1 to 48 and also one Lucky Ball number between 1 and 18. Roberts connected on the five numbers, but missed on the Lucky Ball, which would have paid out $365,000 a year for life if he had matched that number as well.
