“I recognized I had four of the five numbers,” admitted Stebbins when he handed his ticket to the clerk at Super 1 Foods to check it the next morning, Sunday. “That’s when they said I had to get to Boise to claim my prize, that I’d won it, the whole jackpot.”

Five weeks later, on May 21, 2013, Stebbins arrived in Boise to claim his $77,381 jackpot prize, $1000 a week each week for the next year after taxes are paid by the Idaho Lottery.  When asked why it took so long to get to Boise to claim his prize, the understated Stebbins said, “Well, I do live 400 miles away. That’s a long trip.”

Stebbins says his first priority will be to purchase furniture for his new house that he’s since moved in to.

Weekly Grand is only played in Idaho.  Players that match all five numbers win the jackpot.  Since Weekly Grand debuted in August 2011, there have been 13 jackpot winners including three from northern Idaho. There have been 18 second chance winners on Weekly Grand that have claimed $100 a week for a year.  Eight of those winners have been from northern Idaho.

For their part in selling the winning ticket, Super 1 Foods receives a bonus from the Idaho Lottery of $7,738.

Petronella was holding onto a stack of Scratch tickets that were “smaller winners”…or so she thought. Upon having them scanned at the local Idaho Lottery retailer, she was told that she would have to take one of the tickets to the Lottery office in Boise. Come to realize, she missed scratching off one of the numbers on the Born To Bingo Scratch ticket; instead of winning $20, she won $28,000!

Petronella was born in Germany and already had a trip planned to return to Germany this summer to visit her family. This money couldn’t have come at a better time for her and she’s very excited to be at ease during the trip with her newly acquired winnings.

To celebrate our new Sweet BBQ Bucks Scratch Game, we are giving you the chance to win FREE Scratch tickets by Pinning your best recipes to our Pinterest board! *See details below.

Prizes:

1st place: $200 in Sweet BBQ Bucks Scratch tickets
2nd place: $125 in Sweet BBQ Bucks Scratch tickets
3rd place: $50 in Sweet BBQ Bucks Scratch tickets

How to Enter:

1. Follow @idaholottery on Pinterest.
2. Make a delicious BBQ dish.
3. Take a picture that showcases your creation.
4. To officially enter:
   1. For Bloggers: Post the recipe and photo in a new post on your blog, announcing it as a BBQ Bucks recipe contest entry and linking to this contest page. Email us at info@idaholottery.com subject “BBQ Recipe Contest” with the post link and with your Pinterest account name/email. You will then be invited to pin your entries to the BBQ Bucks Recipe Contest Pinterest Board.
   2. For Non-Bloggers: Email us with your Pinterest account name/email to info@idaholottery.com subject “BBQ Recipe Contest”. We will then invite you to Pin on our board!
5. Three winners will be chosen via Pinterest “voting, 1^st, 2^nd and 3rd”. The recipe winners will be based on “likes” to the photo.

Contest Rules and Unruliness:

1. Yes! You can enter as many recipes as you’d like.
2. The recipe must include delicious food made on the BBQ or that would be made for a BBQ.
3. The recipe must be your own. The Idaho Lottery holds no liability for any submitted recipes that are plagiarized. Entrants are representing the recipes and photos as their own work, and will be liable if at any time, this is found to be false. So keep it honest people!
4. By entering this BBQ Recipe contest, you are giving rights to the Idaho Lottery to republish your recipe and photo online. All winning recipes will be featured.
5. All entrants must be residents of the U.S.
6. All entries must be received for pinning no later than June 14. The contest will go from May 22 – June 2 and the winners will be announced on July 1, so you can start cooking your own version of these great BBQ Recipes throughout the summer!

• $600,000,000 – this is a new record jackpot amount for Powerball
• $376,900,000 – is the estimated one-time cash lump sum payout for Saturday night
• $254,000,000 – estimated amount one single Idaho winner would claim, after withholding taxes, if they took the one-time cash lump sum
• $220,300,000 – largest Powerball winner ever in Idaho, May 28, 2005
• $190,000,000 – largest Mega Millions winner ever in Idaho, January 4, 2011

“The Idaho Lottery has seen its draw game sales dramatically increase in the past few days, due to the unprecedented events where both big jackpot games have very large prizes available,” said Idaho Lottery Director Jeff Anderson. “There is a lot of excitement and a lot of anticipation surrounding these games right now.  We want to strongly emphasize to everyone to please play responsibly. Enjoy the games and image what you might do if you win, but please only play what you can afford. Do not go overboard.”

This is the first time the two games combined jackpots for both Powerball and Mega Millions will total over three-quarters of a billion dollars.  The current jackpot amounts are:

            Powerball at $600,000,000
            Mega Millions at $190,000,000

The cost of a Powerball ticket is $2 per play.  The cost of a Mega Millions ticket is $1. 

“The only way to win is to purchase a ticket, but keep in mind it does only take one ticket to win,” added Anderson.

The last time to purchase a Powerball ticket 7:55 p.m. MT on Saturday evening.  Mega Millions ticket sales end at 7:55 p.m. MT on Friday night.

As the draw time gets closer, the Idaho Lottery does expect lines to form at retail locations.  The Idaho Lottery asks players to be patient while waiting and urges players to buy their tickets early, well in advance of the draw tomorrow night.

The Idaho Lottery also is strongly encouraging everyone to sign their tickets at the time of purchase.  Lottery tickets are bearer instruments and the Lottery will pay the person who has signed it and presents it for payment.

The current Powerball jackpot is the second largest jackpot in the history of the world. The world record jackpot is $656 million on Mega Millions from March 2012.

Since its inception in April 1992 in 15 states with jackpots that started at a guaranteed $2 million, Powerball has grown into the world’s biggest and most recognized lottery game. Today it’s played in all 45 Lottery jurisdictions across the nation.

To celebrate our new Mustache Cashword Scratch Game, we are giving you the chance to win FREE Scratch tickets by uploading a photo of your best ‘Stache’ to Instagram. *See details below.

Prizes:

One winner will be awarded with $50 in Mustache Cashword Scratch tickets every week for five weeks. Five winners will be chosen.

How to Enter:

1. Follow @idaholottery on Instagram.
2. Take a photo of you and your Mustache.
3. Upload it to Instagram and tag @idaholottery #MyStache
4. Winners will be selected by the Marketing Department. Stache to impress!
5. *Bonus stache-awesomeness points if a Mustache Cashword Scratch ticket is in your photo!

Contest Rules and Unruliness:

1. Yes! You can enter as many Mustache photos as you’d like.
2. We love ‘selfies’ so make sure the photo is your own. The Idaho Lottery holds no liability for any submitted photos that are not your own. Entrants are representing the photos as their own, and will be liable if at any time, this is found to be false. So keep it honest people!
3. By entering this Instagram Mustache Photo contest, you are giving rights to the Idaho Lottery to republish your photo online. All winning recipes will be featured.
4. All entrants must be residents of the U.S.

Entry dates:

All entries must be received no later than on Friday; weekly winners will be announced Monday.

Week 1: Enter by May 24; winner announced May 28 (Monday is a holiday)
Week 2: Enter by May 31; winner announced June 3
Week 3: Enter by June 7; winner announced June 10
Week 4: Enter by June 14; winner announced June 17
Week 5: Enter by June 21; winner announced June 24

The contest will go from May 16 – June 24.

“Having two big jackpots at the same time for over half-a-billion dollars is bringing a lot of excitement right now to the Gem State,” said Idaho Lottery Director Jeff Anderson.  “We remind everyone who plays this week to play within their means. It does only take one ticket to win.  Play what you can afford, don’t go overboard.”

The Idaho Lottery has seen a 35% increase in combined sales of both games over the past week.

“We do see more people join office pools and buy tickets in groups when the jackpots start to grow,” added Anderson.

In the past 14 months, both Mega Millions and Powerball have seen individual record jackpot amounts for their respective games, but have not grown to nine-figures simultaneously. The previous record for both games under these circumstances was in late March 2011 when their combined total was $448 million.

At $350 million, this is the third largest Powerball jackpot in the game’s history. Powerball tickets can be purchased until 7:55 p.m. MT on Wednesday night.  Mega Millions tickets are available for purchase until 7:55 p.m. MT on Tuesday night.

Adding to the mix, Hot Lotto Sizzler is approaching its first draw on Wednesday night with new game improvements.  Beginning on Wednesday, any player who wins the Hot Lotto Sizzler jackpot will receive the entire jackpot amount in cash and have their jackpot withholding taxes paid by the Lottery.  The current Hot Lotto jackpot is $6.16 million.

On Friday, May 3, Steven Hardy only had vanilla ice cream in the house, so, he took a quick trip over to the Snake River Sinclair store in Blackfoot, which also has an A&W Root Beer store adjacent, to buy his root beer.  While he was being rung up, he asked for a $5 Fifty Large scratch ticket.  He walked away with a $50,000 winner and his root beer for float making.

“I never thought people like me could win,” said Harvey who plans to save his winnings.

For their part in selling the winning ticket, Blackfoot’s Snake River Sinclair will receive a bonus of $5,000 from the Idaho Lottery.

On Saturday, May 4, all Chris Bleak’s family really wanted was to make some homemade, root beer floats.  Bleak left his home with oldest son, heading for a store across town in Idaho Falls to shop for ice cream and root beer, but before going too far, he realized he needed gasoline.  He stopped in CCJ located at 3480 1^st Street in Idaho Falls to fuel up. While doing so, he bought a $5 Topaz Yellow 7s Scratch ticket from the Idaho Lottery.

“I was in a hurry, so I just scratched off the bar code and handed it back to the clerk,” explained Bleak. “It came up ‘claim at Lottery’ so I immediately asked the clerk for the ticket back and signed it right there. I didn’t know how much I’d won.”

Bleak then scratched the ticket and realized he had won $70,000.  Stunned, he nearly left the store without filling up.  When he called his wife, she didn’t believe him at first until his son got on the phone to explain what was going on while Bleak filled up his gas tank to make it back home.

It was midnight before the family realized they never did get the ice cream and root beer for making floats.

Two sleepless nights later and a long drive to Boise, Bleak claimed his $70,000 winner at the Idaho Lottery offices. Bleak and his wife plan to pay off some bills then decide later what to do with the remainder of their winnings.

For their part in selling the winning ticket, CCJ receives a $7,000 bonus from the Idaho Lottery.

“I was in a hurry, so I just scratched off the bar code and handed it back to the clerk,” explained Bleak. “It came up ‘claim at Lottery’ so I immediately asked the clerk for the ticket back and signed it right there. I didn’t know how much I’d won.”

Bleak then scratched the ticket and realized he had won $70,000.  Stunned, he nearly left the store without filling up.  When he called his wife, she didn’t believe him at first until his son got on the phone to explain what was going on while Bleak filled up his gas tank to make it back home.

It was midnight before the family realized they never did get the ice cream and root beer for making floats.

Two sleepless nights later and a long drive to Boise, Bleak claimed his $70,000 winner at the Idaho Lottery on Monday morning.   Bleak and his wife plan to pay off some bills then decide later what to do with the remainder of their winnings.

For their part in selling the winning ticket, CCJ receives a $7,000 bonus from the Idaho Lottery.

“He has no idea I’m at the Lottery or that I just won $245,000,” laughed Hibberd. 

Hibberd bought his winning ticket at Greenhurst Chevron in Nampa for last Saturday night’s Wild Card draw.  He was in the store on Sunday checking a Powerball winner and decided to check his Wild Card ticket, too.  He handed it to the clerk who scanned the ticket and informed Hibberd he needed to claim his ticket in Boise.

“I knew it had to be a lot, but I didn’t know how much it was,” explained Hibberd.  “I finally looked at the numbers and saw I had the big winner. I started calling people!”

Hibberd plans to use his winnings to open a business with his wife, Pretty Paws Dog Grooming. 

“This couldn’t have come at a better time for us, thank you,” added Hibberd.

For their part in selling the winning ticket, Greenhurst Chevron will receive a bonus from the Idaho Lottery for $20,000.

Including the jackpot winning ticket, there were 2,888 winning tickets in Idaho from Saturday night’s draw on Wild Card.

Good luck and thanks for playing the Idaho Lottery!