November 4, 2010

Rhode Islanders Cashing In on Jackpot Games

The $230,035 jackpot for Rhode Island’s own progressive jackpot game, Wild Money, was hit last Thursday and claimed this week by two friends who split the prize.  The winners were from Hope and West Warwick and plan to put the money in the bank and try to slow down and enjoy life more. 

They bought the ticket the morning of the drawing when they realized the jackpot was so high.  The Wild Money roll began on August 31, and has been climbing steadily until last Thursday, October 28.  Brookside Package on Main Street in West Warwick sold the winning ticket.

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

PowerBall® brought in some happy winners this week too.  A Smithfield woman came into the Lottery with her son-in-law to split the $20,000 PowerBall® PowerPlay® prize they had won on August 21st.  This was the first chance they had to come to the Lottery to claim their winnings and both plan on using the money to take trips.  The son-in law is going to Venice, Italy, in a couple weeks, so the win was perfectly timed.  His mother-in-law wants to go on an Alaskan cruise since that has always been a dream of hers. 

The winning number combination they played was the same set of numbers her late husband always played, who apparently was very lucky and won frequently.  The numbers were based off of family members’ birthdays.  The ticket matched four numbers and the PowerBall® number.  The standard payout for this type of win is $10,000.  This lucky pair paid one extra dollar to add the PowerPlay® feature and their winnings were multiplied by 2, the PowerPlay ® number for that draw.

Xtra Mart on High Street in Cumberland sold the winning ticket.

Saturday’s estimated PowerBall® jackpot is $123 million.