New Mexico Lottery
Last Updated: Thursday 15th January 2015, 14:51
A New Mexico Lottery syndicate won $400,000 thanks to matching five main numbers and the Power Play multiplier in the Powerball game on Saturday 7 June. Ordinarily they would have won $200,000 by matching the main numbers, but because they matched the Power Play number (which was 2) their win was multiplied by that amount.
Powerball is a very popular multi-state lottery game that requires players to pick 5 numbers from 1 to 55 and a Powerball number from 1 to 42. The odds of matching all six numbers are a staggering 1 in 146,107,962, but the odds of matching the five main numbers only are a much better 1 in 3,563,608.
The winning syndicate has fifteen members, most of them public school workers in Albuquerque. They entered fourteen $1 tickets and one $1 Power Play option for each of them, bringing their total investment to $28.
The syndicate’s win was discovered by Genaro Cano when he used his mobile phone to check the winning numbers on the internet. Realising that he and his friends had won a six figure prize, he quickly called syndicate leader Gary Chavez, who was looking after the tickets.
Each syndicate member is now thinking about what to do with their share of the prize money. Holidays and Harley Davidson motorcycles are proving to be the most popular choices.
The New Mexico Lottery was launched in April 1996 to raise money for education via a Legislative Lottery Scholarship program. This helps New Mexico residents to attend public colleges and universities by providing assistance with tuition fees. Since the lottery started, some $351.9 million has been raised for this cause, and over 48,000 people have been awarded educational scholarships as a result.
Coincidentally, two players in the winning syndicate have children who are currently attending a public college thanks to receiving a Legislative Lottery Scholarship.
