Well, finally, those of you who read this and live in or near Minnesota can again play your state lottery.

It’s been three weeks since the government shutdown.

The resumption of ticket sales follows a special legislative session that put an end to the government shut down.

The lottery suspended operations on July 1.

Beginning at 6:00 am Thursday, the Lottery is expected to restore its systems and begin selling and redeeming winning tickets at retailers throughout the state.

“We couldn’t be happier about the end of the shutdown, and we’re eager to welcome back our dedicated employees, work with our retail partners and continue generating revenue that helps preserve, restore and enhance our state’s natural resources,” said Dale McDonnell, Assistant Director at the Minnesota State Lottery, in a statement released to the press.

“We want to thank everyone for their patience over the last few weeks and invite our players to get back to the fun of our games with our exciting new promotions and offers which the Lottery will begin in early August.”

I know…a lot of cliches.

Politician talk.

Point is, you can play again.

I can tell you this.

There were no Powerball or Mega Millions winners in Minnesota this past July 1 or 2.

Because the lottery has been shut down.

It’s the budget impasse, of course, that has closed down the state government. Period.

Many state services ceased operations Friday.

The Lottery closed all its offices 5 p.m. Thursday, and no lottery tickets were available for sale after 11:59 p.m.

During the shutdown, lottery tickets cannot be validated or paid out.

Ain’t that a bitch?

So if you have winning tickets, just hold on to them until this all blows over.

Starting Thursday evening, the Minnesota Lottery’s Web site displayed the following words:

DUE TO THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, THE MINNESOTA STATE LOTTERY IS CLOSED AND THIS WEBSITE IS NOT BEING MAINTAINED.

No Lottery tickets may be sold or winning tickets redeemed until further notice.

Please sign any winning tickets and retain in a secure location.

We have tried to provide Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) about the shutdown and you may link to those questions here.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

If  I lived in Minnesota, I might not be so patient.

If you are reading this and live in Minnesota, let me know what you think.

Here are your top current jackpots:

1. 132 million euros ($187.3 USD),Euro Millions, next game June 28. Game is played in nine European countries, including the U.K., Spain, France, Switzerland, Portugal.

2. $88 million, Mega Millions, June 28

3. $76 million, Powerball, June 29

4. $42 million, SuperLotto Plus, in California only, June 29

5. $36.2 million, Ohio Classic Lotto, June 29, in Ohio only.

Good luck.

Now, about Powerball. In an effort to keep up with, or out-excite lottery players who prefer Mega Millions, Powerball will be changing come next year. I don’t know all the details yet, but I do know that jackpots will begin at $40 million. Also, a single ticket will cost $2 instead of $1. I don’t know how that will go over.

More details next time. I know some folks who run the show, so I’ll find out what I can.

From our local news correspondent in Canada:

He writes that three sisters who work at their family’s restaurant are a whole lot richer, thanks to a winning $6.8 million lotto win they’re sharing with three regulars.

Qerime, Shuki and Gurabie Alievski have worked together at the Prime Bar-B-Q restaurant on for 17 years. But the sisters, all in their mid 30s, told the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation they’ve got no plans to quit the business owned by their father, Robert.

“We like where we work. We’re just going to take it day by day,” Shuki told lottery officials when the group travelled to Toronto on Monday to claim their prize. “We haven’t really thought about what we’re going to do with the money.”

The group ticket is shared with customers Chuck Terry, Brian Hutchins and Kevin Ray. “The fabulous six” – as Hutchins called the group – have been buying tickets for about two years.

Up until now, they’d won a free ticket here, a small prize there, Hutchins said by phone from the lotto corporation’s offices. “This is a big one.”

Their win solves a mystery that has been buzzing among local lottery buyers since the winning Lotto 6/49 ticket was sold in Kitchener last Wednesday.

Last week, one of the ticket’s owners walked into Ben Boo’s Happy Variety, a convenience store in the same little strip mall as Prime Bar-B-Q, and scanned the ticket.

The lottery terminal started flashing immediately, said Boo, who was at the counter. Then the phone rang. It was the lottery corporation.

“The machine said ‘big prize’ and it was making a noise. He didn’t know what was happening,” Boo said. “He didn’t believe it. He was frozen.”

Boo handed the phone to the man, who looked stunned as a lottery official gave him instructions. The OLG re-confirmed the ticket and the jackpot flashed on the terminal’s digital screen.

When Terry, the lottery pool leader, walked into the restaurant and announced they’d won big, the sisters thought he was joking.

“He came into the restaurant, all nonchalant, and first told me that we won $2,” Qerime told the OLG. “He gave me a piece of paper that said ‘Big Winner,’ but it didn’t have the amount on it, so I threw it onto the counter in the kitchen and focused on getting through the dinner rush.”

She was still curious, though, and asked to see the ticket. When she found out what they’d won, her sisters said she almost fainted.

“She just could not believe it,” laughed Gurabie.

Hutchins had another approach. “I sat down and had about eight beers. Maybe it was nine.”

According to lottery officials, both Terry and Hutchins are close to retirement, while Ray is a local machinist.

Reese and family; photo courtesy of Georgia Lottery

Four days after two players shared a $33 million jackpot, a Georgia contractor, Wayne Reese, hit a $12 million Mega Millions jackpot. He discovered the win while checking the lottery’s web site.

”I said, ‘Whew’ like wrestler Ric Flair,” he said with excitement. “I shouted out to my family, ‘Y’all won¹t believe what¹s right here!’”

Winning numbers for the drawing were: 2-9-28-51-53 and the Mega Ball was 19. Reese stopped at Red & Ed’s Convenience Store, in Newnan, for a MoonPie and a Coca-Cola Zero when he purchased the lucky Quik Pik ticket.

Reese, who is a contractor and owns a septic tank business, wants to build homes for his two adult children. He and his wife, Linda, also intend to remodel their own home.

We’re on a new ride now,” Reese exclaimed. And it sure feels good, he said.

The Aug. 19 Powerball jackpot is an estimated $245 million.

The Aug. 15 winning numbers are 14,15,26,32,36 and the Power ball was 12. The Power Play multiplier is 5.

Only 5 tickets in the country matched 5 of 6 numbers.

The Mega Millions jackpot is approaching the $200 million mark and the Aug. 18 game offers up a $170 million jackpot.

In Europe, Euro Millions Aug. 21 game will have a 74 million euros jackpot. That translates to about $105 million, in U.S. dollars.

Within a few weeks, there are going to be some very rich people around the world.

I play all these games. Do you?

Good luck to everyone around the world.

More stories about winners, tomorrow. I’ve been getting lots of pictures and anecdotes from my friends at lotteries around the country. Stay tuned.

Photo of April Lopez courtesy of Florida Lottery

When does a $5 bet result in a $250,000 win? Not too often.

But it did in Florida, recently, when April Lopez, 36, of Ruskin, scratched, won and claimed the top prize of the “$250,000 SPIN” Scratch-Off game.

Lopez said she hasn’t been able to sleep for the past three nights, since finding out she was a winner.

“We are making plans for the money, but first we are going to take a trip to Mexico,” she said.

GAMES WE PLAY:

There was no big winner in the July 22 Powerball game so the jackpot rolls over to $88 million on July 25.

The July 24 Mega Millions jackpot has soared to $48 million.

And the Euro Millions jackpot starts all over (after last week’s win) at 15 million euros.

Good luck, everyone.

Photo of Charles Jones is courtesy of the Ga. Lottery

I don’t believe in lottery systems that work (they are fun to play, though), and neither, I suspect, does a real professional systems analyst from Powder Springs, Ga., who just won $1 million on June 30, in the state’s rather unique game, Weekly WinFall drawing.

Charley Jones bought his ticket in Lithia Springs, Ga. at a gas station.

He found out by checking out the Ga. Lottery web site.

“My first reaction was to double check the ticket to make sure my eyes weren’t blurred,” Jones said, with a chuckle.

Jones, 47, and his wife, Pam, together have three children. He said he intends to save some his winnings, set money aside for retirement and share the remainder with the couple’s parents and their children.

A bit about the game, because I like it. Weekly WinFall was a limited-time game that gave Georgia Lottery players two chances to win.

Each week 10 lucky tickets purchased were drawn to win $5,000 each.

The bonus drawing for one $1 million prize and 1,500 $500 prizes was held June 30.

Remember when I talked about the better odds you get when playing second-chance games. To some extent, that holds true for raffle like games as well. So watch for them. Okay?

I want to see YOU win. [Well, me too.]

GAMES WE PLAY:

The Powerball jackpot on July 8 is $30 million.

The Mega Millions jackpot is reset to $12 million on July 10, after there was ONE winning $133 million ticket, bought in New York, for the July 7 game. Congratulations, whomever you are.

The Euro Millions jackpot has soared to 38 million euros for the July 10 game.

Good luck, players around the world.

For those of you who’ve read the history section of my book, this won’t come as a surprise.

Colonial America was, in part, financed by legitimate lotteries. From the original settlers in Jamestown, Va. through the revolutionary years and beyond, money was raised for schools, roads, etc by lotteries.

It was only when graft and cheating was discovered that lotteries fell out of favor. And by the late 1800s, there was only one left, the Louisiana Lottery. It was a scam. People lost money and the owners of the lottery were eventually sent to jail.

Thus ended lotteries in America.

Until 1964 when the state of New Hampshire began a state run sweepstakes.

Now, you can own the first ticket ever…in modern lotteries. That first ticket, which was symbolically given to the state’s Governor.

Here is more of the story:

“We expect the sweepstakes will be proven at some future time to have been a tragic mistake,” The Union & Rockingham Gazete predicted in August, 1963. Four months earlier, the New Hampshire legistlature passed a bill making the state the first in the nation to have a legal lottery.

The entire nation was watching the day the first ticket was sold, on March 17, 1964, to then Governor John W. King.

KIng’s ticket is now up for auction.

People were outraged.  Reader’s Digest said the sweepstakes would mean moral bankruptcy for the state. Instead, a few years later, New York and New Jersey followed suit.

The rest is history. The auction begins at 6 p.m. June 26 at Big Guy Auctions, in Hooksett, New Hampshire. Previews begin at 3 p.m.

GAMES WE PLAY:

The June 16 Mega Millions jackpot is an estimated $46 million.

The June 17 Powerball jackpot is $72 million.

And Friday, June 19′s Euro Millions jackpot is back at 15 million euros, after there were two winners sharing last week’s 59 million euro jackpot.

Good luck players, around the world.

Then, he hits the lottery.

Here is the story, courtesy of the Pennsylvania Lottery:

Who knew ‘pocket change’ could turn into $350,000?  Mike Commander found out soon after his quick-pick CASH 5 Lottery ticket turned out to be a winner!

Mike and his fiancé, Nilda Gonzalez, are cautious when spending money on items other than to pay their mortgage and household bills.

But for Mike, he looked at playing his favorite terminal-based game, CASH 5, as an investment.

Currently working as a technician at the Red Cross, by his own admission, times are tough so spontaneous purchases are out of the question.

As a regular Lottery player, Mike played his usual CASH 5 Pennsylvania Lottery game with a couple of dollars he ‘found’ in his pocket, and hit the jackpot.

Mike, Nilda and his mother, Mrs. Lucilla Commander were all smiles when they came to the Philadelphia Regional Office to claim their prize. He will receive over $260,000 once 25 percent is withheld for federal taxes.

The lucky ticket was purchased at Cash Money, a check cashing store in the Torresdale section of Philadelphia.  The retailer will receive a $500 bonus for selling the winning ticket.

Mike and Nilda are looking forward to getting married very soon.  After paying off his mortgage and planning for his children’s college education, he is finally going to get that Jeep Commander he has always wanted.

GAMES WE PLAY:

The May 19 Mega Millions game offers a $12 million jackpot.

The May 20 Powerball jackpot is the biggest ongoing jackpot in the world: $170 million.

The May 22 Euro Millions jackpot is 15 million euros (or slightly over $20 million, in U.S. dollars)

Good luck players, wherever you are in the world.