Peggy Rike, from Oakland has found her system for buying lottery tickets has backfired and certainly didn't lead her to winning a $6,000,000 prize with the California Lottery. Rike, developed her own strategy which involves her visiting 12 different stores in both San Leandro and Oakland, depending on what day of the week it is. Rike, regularly visits three or four stores a day that sell lottery tickets and buys multiple scratchers tickets. "I won't buy them all in one spot" she said. However, the irony became apparent when one day her husband needed to go to the store to buy some milk and she came with him, despite this being a detour store from where she usually purchases her tickets. Now, Peggy has the decision of choosing to receive the lottery money as a lump sum of $3,480,000 or instead gradual payments of $20,000 monthly. 

Monte Hukill, and his wife Gage Hukill from High Point, North Carolina have been announced as the first winners of the top prize of $10,000,000 in the Extreme Millions Scratch off game with the North Carolina Lottery. Hukill, purchased his winning ticket from the Fairway One Stop on Greensboro Road which is located in High Point, and thinking nothing of the lottery buy he went home in anticipation of the Thursday football he was looking forward to watching. "I would scratch a number and then look back at the game", "I wasn't really paying attention. But that sure did change" he exclaimed when speaking to lottery officials. The Hukill's opted to receive their prize sum as a lump sum of $4,170,069 after taxes over the gradual instalments which would have amounted to $500,000 in annual payments. The couple plan to use their winnings for paying for their two kids college tuition as well as paying off Gage's student loan debt as she went back to school at 42. 

Robert Cavalier, a Lisle resident is enjoying his brand-new wealth after winning a $250,000 prize with the Illinois Lottery. Cavalier, 67 purchased his 25X The Money lottery ticket from Lisle Liquors, which is located at 4719 on Main Street in Lisle, however when he took it home to scratch-off and saw that he'd won, he thought he must have been seeing things wrong or checked it incorrectly. He plans on spending the money on some furniture, a car and investing the remainder. "I never imagined I would win so much money!" He said after signing off his ticket at the Illinois Prize Centre in Des Plaines.

Bich Ha, a 29-year-old Vietnamese woman from San Francisco, has just had a stroke of lottery luck which has solved the major dilemma she's been wanting to solve. Ha, is very different to many people in her age bracket who dream about receiving a lot of money that they can spend on materialistic things such as cars or luxurious vacations, instead she has always thought about the future and what she can do to ensure that she was able to take care of her mother and father when it became necessary. Now, after purchasing a California Lottery Crossword Deluxe Scratchers, she's realized that she is the sole winner of a $2,000,000 lottery prize! Talking about the future plans for the money, Ha says she is now looking forward to buying a home for her parents in the perfect location she's found in the city, as well as getting a place for her and her husband too which will be in close vicinity to her parents.

Lynda Blesi, who has been playing the same lottery game – Dakota Cash all her life has finally seen a return on her investment after winning the games largest ever prize of $614,181 for the jackpot on Tuesday. Blesi, who is retired, lives with her husband Pete in Sioux Falls, and has developed a routine of purchasing Dakota Cash tickets twice a week from Hy-Vee Gas, which is located on Louise Avenue in Sioux Falls. "She plays Dakota Cash because she gets a couple of bucks all of the time" husband exclaimed. Upon claiming the prize, the couple have paid off their house and their car. However, this sure isn't the end of Lynda playing the lottery, she plans to keep playing because "you can't win if you don't play".

You may have heard the saying, "Persistence is key", well this phrase has certainly proved true for lottery winner Judy Finchum, from Colorado who has finally won a huge lottery prize after playing the same five numbers over the past 30 years! Finchum has always been playing with the numbers: 17, 18, 24, 25, 31, and this time round she landed all of them after purchasing a Powerball ticket from the Lucky Me Super Store for the September the 16th Drawing. She also matched the Powerball number 24 which gave her a grand total of $133,200,000 in prize money, which makes Judy Colorado's biggest ever lottery winner in the history of the state. 

Sarah Simonds, from Sacramento had no idea that a simple trip to the bank, to make a deposit would lead to her winning a huge sum of money. Simonds was making a route trip to the Safeway store, which is located in Midtown Sacramento at 1814 19^th Street when she decided to take her chance using $20 at a lottery vending machine. She purchased two $10 Mystery Crossword Scratchers and walked out of the bank, oblivious to the fact she'd just left a whole $750,000 wealthier! It wasn't until she got home that she finally scratched off both her tickets, to find that one of them matched 10 words on the ticket. However, it only really hit home for Sarah, once the receptionist scanned her ticket and she saw "750-thousand" on it. She says she doesn't have any major plans on how she's going to spend her money, apart from not being stupid with it! For now, it's all going in the bank.