One day he said, “I’ll show you how to play.” He went to a convenience store in Portsmouth and bought three tickets. He selected the numbers for two of the tickets and used Easy Pick for the third.

That night, he returned to the store and discovered he had won $100,000.

Tucker matched all five numbers in the January 23 Cash 5 day drawing. The winning numbers were 7-13-16-19-34. The winning ticket was the one for which he used Easy Pick and allowed the computer to randomly select his numbers.

As he claimed his prize, Tucker said that he shared the good news with his wife and mother.

“I don’t keep good things a secret,” he said.

That’s an estimate. By Feb. 8, the jackpot might be a bit higher.

Good luck everyone.

I know my lottery pool will be playing.

I think his story is a cautionary tale: that is, if you win big, get a trusted financial advisor.

You know me. I ALWAYS try to go positive. But sometimes you have to talk about people who give the finger (so to speak) to their good fortune, instead of being grateful.

Here is the basic story line:

One of Scotland’s first big money lottery winners saids he was broke yesterday as he admitted being a drunk driver. Robert Moffat, 51, was 5.3 times the drink limit at the wheel of his father’s X-type Jaguar when he crashed into a pavement bollard.

The former barman won £800,000 as his share of his family syndicate’s £3.5million jackpot win in 1999. That’s a lot of money. But he has now lost all the trappings of wealth, including his home and classic cars with personal registration plates, Falkirk Sheriff Court was told

Moffat, from Denny, Stirlingshire, admitted driving with a count of 186 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The limit is 35.

Mark Keane, prosecuting, said a passer-by phoned the police at 5pm on December 30 last year after seeing a crashed car in Northfield Road, Denny. “The witness was of the opinion that the driver was under the influence of alcohol and he reported the matter to police.”

Moffat was traced and taken to a police station where he admitted he had been at the wheel of his father’s car and said: “Sorry.”

Dick Sandeman, defending, said: “Moffat has had a particularly hard time over the past year or so.He lost everything he had in his business and his wife and he split up. He has a drink difficulty.”

Adding that the lottery winner was now unemployed and on Jobseekers Allowance, he offered to pay any financial penalty at £10 a week. But Sheriff Vinit Khurana deferred sentence for three weeks for background reports, in view of the high alcohol reading. He disqualified Moffat from driving pending the sentence.

Moffat’s life was made a misery in the wake of his lottery win when a former girlfriend claimed he was the father of her son. But the case was thrown out when DNA tests proved Moffat could not be the boy’s dad.

Yesterday’s court appearance was not his first on a drink-driving charge. In 1998, he admitted being behind the wheel of a car while over the limit and was banned from driving for a year.

A truly said story, isn’t it?

Life can be a challenge, as we all know. And balancing a budget on a small, fixed income in never easy–as Sue Hockenbury of Washington, Illinois can attest.

Hockenbury, 66, has been living on modest, monthly social security benefits over the last two years. Thankfully, she has four children living in the area who freely contribute to their mom’s income when unexpected expenses arise.

Now, thanks to winning a $500 A Week for Life Lottery prize, Hockenbury will be in a position to return the favor to her loving and supportive children and their families.

“The good Lord has been looking after me for many years—and still is,” said Hockenbury, who retired two years ago. An occasional Lottery player, Hockenbury said the most she ever won prior to the “Cash For Life” prize was $10. “I’m still having a hard time believing I won a prize like this,” she said. She is the third Peoria-area resident to date to claim a top prize in one of the Lottery’s “Cash For Life” instant games.

Hockenbury bought her winning ticket the Friday before New Year’s Eve. She wasn’t planning to buy a Lottery ticket. But, after finding a $1 bill in her pocket, she pointed to the $1 Cash For Life ticket and said, “give me one of those.”  It turned out to be one of the best decisions of her life.

After returning home she sat down with a cup of re-warmed coffee and played the scratch game. “I kept saying to myself, ‘this can’t be right….But it was!” To confirm the win, Hockenbury took a short drive to her daughter Dawn’s home. When she walked in,

Dawn and her husband, Paul, realized something was not quite normal with their mom/mother-in-law. “They kept asking me: are you sick; did you fall down; did you have an accident,” said Hockenbury. “’No,’ I said, ‘I won the Lottery!’”

When asked what she might do to treat herself, Hockenbury says it’s too soon to tell, but a new car may be in her future. “I’m just going to bide my time for now,” she said.

I’ve had varying thoughts about the changes in the game.

I do NOT like the $2 ticket. But I play the game nonetheless.

In talking  to retailers, I’ve found that there has not been a slack off in play…. but I need to look into it more.

On the Powerball site, you can actually see how many winning tickets per tier have been won, by state. I think that the number of overall players may be down.

I want to know what YOU think about the new Powerball. And I’ll pass those comments along to my contact at the group that runs the game.

The 70-year-old father-of-two said, “I used to think that nobody wins the top prizes, but now I know people do win.”

Donald was with his 38-year-old daughter when the two of them stopped to buy several Lottery tickets for his wife.

“She likes scratch-offs,” said Donald. It wasn’t until the next evening that they got around to playing their tickets.

He, his wife and daughter, were scratching the tickets, winning a few smaller amounts along the way, when Donald struck it rich, winning $50,000 all taxes paid on the new Tax Free scratch-off.

“I asked my daughter what this meant,” he said.  “Looks like you win,” she replied. The trio couldn’t quite believe their good fortune, but as Donald decreed, “It turned out true.”  Donald’s wife quickly phoned her sisters in Pennsylvania and posted the good news on Facebook. “We started getting phone calls congratulating us,” said the happy winner.

The retired Montgomery County, Maryland police officer and now part-time bailiff for the district court intends to use the majority of his winnings to purchase a certificate of deposit for his wife. “It will be security for her,” he said. They will also enjoy a celebratory dinner out.

Marcia Adams, 33, matched all of the winning numbers in the Jan. 24 Mega Millions drawing.

Adams claimed her $72 million prize Thursday at Georgia Lottery headquarters. After final sales were tallied, the jackpot increased from the advertised $71 million. Adams selected the cash option amount, which is $52 million.

Her boyfriend, Kenneth, was craving a Hershey’s with almonds chocolate bar on the night of the drawing; but at her urging, he purchased two Quik Piks instead.

“We found out this morning while he was taking me to work,” said Adams, who works in accounting. “I almost lost my mind.”

The couple were talking about the ticket when Kenneth checked the results of the drawing on the Georgia Lottery’s mobile site with his cell phone.

“We’ve been laughing since then,” she said. “We feel like we’re dreaming, like this isn’t real.”

Adams has worked in accounting 12 years; and at the moment, she plans to continue working. She and Kenneth have dated seven years.

“We’re going to plan for our wedding and buy a house,” she said. “We just want to be happy.”

“I always buy a ticket,” said Sandy. “I didn’t think much about it. When I went to work on Monday, somebody said, ‘Someone in Itasca County won Hot Lotto!’ I had to work late and when I got home, Don said, ‘Get on the computer [to check the winning numbers.]’ I printed off the numbers and checked.”

She saw that all six numbers on the first line of her five-line quick-pick ticket matched the winning numbers and told Don.

“I jumped up and ran out there and looked. I just couldn’t believe it,” he said.

Don is retired, but Sandy had to go to work at the Grand Rapids Herald-Review newspaper the next morning to ask for a day off to claim the prize.

The cash option is worth $1.98 million before required tax withholding.

The winning Hot Lotto numbers on Jan. 14, 2012 are 1-4-9-17-21 and the Hot Ball was 10.

That’s the “problem” (if you want to call it that) Kenneth Halvorsen had after he discovered he’d won the top prize in the Virginia Lottery’s World Poker Tour® game.

The Harrisonburg, Virginia man told Lottery officials he scratched the ticket while he was still in the store.

When he realized it was no ordinary ticket, he quietly left the store. While driving home, he tried to plan how to tell his wife in a funny way. However, when he got home, he just came out with it.

Halvorsen said he plans to pay bills with his prize and save for his son’s college education.

Janene and Garry Thompson of Portland, Oregon, winners of  $36,000, playing Lucky Lines℠ are two timers.

Lucky them.

They recently became the first two-time jackpot winners in the daily draw game.

“Nice to be back,” said Janene and Garry when they picked up their prize at lottery headquarters. When the couple decided to equally share the prize, they were each presented with a prize of $18,000.

In 2008, Janene had been in to claim a $21,000 jackpot prize. That’s a total of $57,000 in jackpot prizes alone. The couple said they enjoy playing Lucky Lines, and often win prizes from $2 to $25 to keep the fun and excitement going.

Does anyone doubt that they’ll be back for a third time? Someday.