Nearly $1 billion in combined lottery winning could await lottery enthusiasts with tickets for the Powerball and Mega Millions lottery games this week. As no one has claimed the Mega Millions jackpot last Friday night, it has soared to $654 million. With a cash option of $372.6 million, it is the second highest in game history. The biggest one, only $2 million higher, was taken in March 2012.

On top of it, the jackpot for this Wednesday Powerball drawing will be $345 million, fourth largest potential jackpot in U.S history. Therefore, the two games combined possible winnings comprise $999 million dollars!

Samuel Sexton Jr., from Reidsville has won $100,000 with the North Carolina Lottery and has already made some lovely plans to spend some of it on treating his daughters. Sexton, who is employed to install heaters and air conditioners, explained how he stopped by the Countryside which is located at N.C. 68 North in Stokesdale because his daughters wanted to get some sweets. Whilst there, he disclosed that he plays the lottery every so often with his wife so he decided to buy a $150 Million Cash Explosion ticket, before getting in his car and scratching the ticket on the way home. He said that he knew that he had won some kind of prize as soon as he saw the money bag, next he saw the amount the ticket was worth and began crying once he saw the $100,000 as he was so full of joy. 

Jerrit Elmer, from Blackfoot, but now residing in Pocatello and his family of 10 children are all very happy that Elmer has carried out a particular family tradition – as it is this tradition that has landed the family a lottery prize of $200,000. Elmer, told the story of how he has been going to the Eastern Idaho State Fair throughout his life, dating back to when his grandparents would take him as a young boy. “I bought a Bronco pack for my Dad, then some tickets for us. I had some winners and went back to the booth, cashed them, and spent a little more and got the ticket”. The ticket was purchased from a crew member called Owen Armbruster, who scratched the barcode before passing it on to the supervisor who went on to tell him that he needed to go to Boise to claim the prize on the ticket. 

Sarah Mercardo would never have predicted that a trip to the gas station with her aunt would have led to a $10 million-dollar win. Mercardo’s aunt was about to go into a 7-Eleven which is located at 615 S Tustin Street in Orange county to pay for gas, so Mercado gave her some money to purchase a few lottery tickets. They were actually on their way to a relative’s funeral, and at the time Mercado was having a very difficult time at home as things were so intense. When checking the $10 Million Dazzler game, she found the number 16 – which is her favourite as it relates to the date of her birthday was a winning number, along with other winning numbers. 

A couple from Silverdale, finally stepped forward 2 weeks after the win was announced to claim their $7.2 million prize with Powerball. The married couple who remained anonymous, purchased their ticket from Pak N Save, which is located in Silverdale but left the ticket aside without checking it, even after they heard that someone had won as they didn’t think it was them, “The win was all over Facebook, so you really couldn’t miss it” the woman exclaimed. Even when her husband asked her if she’d heard about the Powerball win, she sarcastically took the ticket out of her handbag and threw it around in the air saying “Yup, this is the winning ticket” before putting it away with a stack of previously bought tickets. The next few weeks were filled with talk of what the couple would have done, who they would have given aid to, had they been the winners, ironic isn’t it! ...

 Stanley Shelby, from Salem in Massachusetts did not expect to win $20,000 or even realise that was the amount he’d won for quite a while. Shelby, originally purchased a $5 Fireball 7s ticket in Rolla, to find he’d won a $40 prize – so, he decided to use that money to buy another one of those tickets from Casey’s general store which is located at 201 S. Main Street in Salem as he was in the area for business. The second ticket he bought, he found showed 5X $1,000 whilst the other number 7: showed $5,000 – although he’d actually got this misconstrued and his prize was worth double that, $20,000! The couple said they will be using the prize money to pay off bills, and to buy another car. For this couple, taking a risk on buying another ticket was certainly worth it.

A man from Sydney, Australia, recently found out that he was the sole winner of an AU $3.5 million, (US $2.5 million) prize, however he disclosed that he already knew this was going to happen as he had a premonition in a dream. The lucky man, who has opted to remain anonymous described how he bought the 2-SET entry ticket from the Wareemba News agency which is located at 276 Great North Road in Wareeemba, and prior to this, a few weeks back he said that he had a dream where he won with Set for life. Shortly after, he was on the beach with his wife when he suddenly grabbed her and said “We are about to win something, you just wait” and win they did! They won a huge prize, and opted for monthly pay-outs of $20,000 a month for 20 years over the lump-sum pay-out.