Maybe it’s just anecdotal. Maybe it’s just the people I met. But when a lottery jackpot gets big, I often hear people say, “Nobody from New Jersey ever wins.”
They’ll say it’s always someone from Texas or Florida or wherever.
And Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot got really, really big. Over a billion dollars. At 11 p.m. draw time on July 29, it could well cross the line to become the third-biggest lottery jackpot in US history. The cash option alone (which almost everyone takes) is over $600 million. After taxes, you still walk away with over $400 million.
You would be richer than Brad Pitt. You would be as rich as Al Pacino, Chris Pratt, Tina Fey and Jennifer Lawrence combined. (At least according to celebritynetworth.com)
But is it true that no one from New Jersey ever wins the jackpot?
No.
New Jersey Lottery Powerball, Mega Millions Tickets
Examples:
In 2019, Michael Weirsky of Alpha in Warren County made headlines not only for reaching the $273 million Mega Millions. He did it only to have almost lost the ticket forever before finding out he had won. He had left his freshly bought ticket on the counter of the store where he bought it and miraculously, when he went back to check, they had saved it for him. A heartwarming part of this story is that he was divorced and out of work at the time. How life has changed!
There was Pedro Quezeda from Passaic. At 19, he immigrated from the Dominican Republic. In 2013, at age 45, he was working hard to run a small grocery store when he landed a Powerball draw with a $338 million jackpot. (He took the $221 million cash option.) He was a guy who had a house foreclosed just four years ago and didn’t even own a car when he struck. This is the kind of person you hope to see win.
Then there was Vernon resident Richard Wahl in 2018. He first misread his Mega Millions ticket and thought he lost. Thank goodness he went back and double-checked before ripping it up because he actually had the winning numbers for $533 million. He told his wife, “We are going on vacation.
Not realizing he was saying he had won the lottery, his typical Jersey girl response was, “Don’t be silly.”
A year later he moved to Florida and bought a resort.
There have been many others. Follow this link for a deeper dive.
The lesson here is not to think that no one from our small state ever wins. Keep hope. It’s fun to play. Hope. As said in “The Shawshank Redemption”, hope is a good thing. Perhaps the best of things.
The opinions expressed in the above post are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.
You can now listen to Deminski & Doyle — On demand! Listen to New Jersey’s favorite radio show every day of the week. Download the Deminski & Doyle show wherever you get podcasts, on our free app, or listen now.
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