August 11, 2009

Wild Money Wedding Windfall

The jackpot for Rhode Island’s own progressive jackpot game, Wild Money, was hit on Saturday night.  The jackpot won was worth $203,960, but as part of The Rhode Island Lottery’s 35th Anniversary celebration, the Lottery added an extra $35,000 on top of that jackpot, making one lucky winner $238,960 richer.     

This Wild Money roll began on June 25, 2009, and has been climbing steadily until Saturday night when Anastasio Kapsimalis of North Providence, RI, hit the jackpot. 

Kapsimalis bought his winning ticket from the Round House Tavern on Central Street in Central Falls.  On Saturday night, when all of his family and friends were gathered for his son’s wedding, he had his son use his phone to check the Rhode Island Lottery’s website.  When they realized he was the jackpot winner, they made an announcement at the reception.  The son, who accompanied his father to claim the winning ticket, said he’s hoping his father will give him some money to take on his honeymoon to Greece. 

The Wild Money drawings take place three times a week: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights, live on WPRI-TV at 7:29pm. 

The Saturday night $164.2 million PowerBall® drawing also had two $10,000 winning tickets sold in Rhode Island.   The tickets matched four numbers and the PowerBall® number.  The standard payout for this type of win is $10,000.  Neither winner purchased the Power Play® feature for an additional dollar on the wager.  If the players had opted for Power Play®, the $10,000 prizes would have been multiplied by 4, Saturday’s Power Play® number, to equal $40,000.

Cumberland Farms at 414 Smitihfield Ave., Providence, and Crossroads Wine & Spirits at 1540 Bulgarmarsh Rd., Tiverton, sold the winning tickets.  The $10,000 prizes have not been claimed.