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The winner of a $200,000 Powerball lottery prize won on 1 July 2006 came forward to claim his prize just in time to beat the 28 December deadline. Like most lotteries, the Powerball game gives winners a certain amount of time to make their claim, and if they don’t claim in time their prize is forfeited and used for good causes instead.
Michael Gomez of Spearfish, South Dakota, finally collected his prize money on Friday 22 December at the Rapid City redemption centre. He matched five white balls but not the red Powerball that would have resulted in him hitting the jackpot. Even so, his $200,000 second tier prize meant that he walked away with a payout of $150,000 after taxes.
Powerball officials said that Michael declined publicity and photographs and he has therefore been dubbed a “shy Spearfish winner” in many reports of the story. The owners of the Loaf ‘N’ Jug store in Spearfish will no doubt be glad that he wasn’t so shy that he avoided coming forward altogether – they received a bonus of $10,000 for selling him the winning ticket.
8 January 2007
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