The Aug. 5 Mega Millions draw produced one winning ticket, the Ohio ticket.

The winning numbers are 6, 24,28,33,42 and Mega ball 19.

So check your tickets.

And we’ll report on the winner, when he, she or they (if they are a pool) cash in their jackpot winning ticket.

Oh, and by the way, the Powerball game on Aug. 6, is offering up a $180 million jackpot.

Now he has a new reason to like it.

He actually won.

Shellnutt, of South Riding,  matched all five numbers in an early July  Cash 5 day drawing to win the game’s top prize of $100,000.

“It’s pretty fun when you win,” he told Lottery officials as he claimed his prize.

Shellnutt went the quick pick route, allowing the computer to randomly select the numbers on his ticket.

Those numbers were 4-7-11-24-27.

Shellnutt, who works in the home remodeling business, said he plans to put his winnings into an interest-bearing account.

Smart dude, Shellnutt.

And only 20.

How cool is that. Congratulations man. You rock.

Theoretically it should make no difference. One set of numbers has the same odds of being picked as any other. That’s mathematics.

But the empirical evidence shows otherwise and feel free to write me with your own explanations for this.

I once worked for the California Lottery and a former employer (friend) there was recently asked by a player what was the exact percentage of Lotto and MegaMillion winners who win using their own numbers vs. Quick Pick numbers?

Cathy Johnston, the lottery spokeswoman answered thusly:

Out of the 15 Mega Millions jackpots winners in California, 12 have played Quick Pick numbers.

California’s other big money game is called SuperLotto Plus, which is essentially a mini version of a Mega Millions game.

Of the 2,200 Super Lotto Plus jackpot winners, approximately 70 percent have used Quick Pick numbers, Johnston said.

As I would say to you, Cathy said, “Every ticket has as much a chance as every other of winning because the numbers are drawn at random. “One, two, three, four, five, six has the same chance as a Quick Pick,” she said.

On the other hand…maybe it’s just that more people play quick picks than their “favorite numbers.”

Your thoughts?

Personally? I play a combination of numbers I dreamed one night, my wife’s lucky numbers and a quick pick.

What do you play?

Andrew Jones, 63, won a $1 million prize playing the Georgia Lottery instant game Maximum Green.

This is the second big win for Jones, who won $500,000 playing the instant game Jumbo Jumbo Bucks in March 2008.

Jones purchased both of his lucky top prize tickets at Jet Food Store on W. Broad St., Metter.

With all the excitement, the grandfather of four says he is remaining calm. Jones retired in 2009 after working at a service station for 25 years.

“I feel good about it,” he exclaimed. “I just plan to sit and count.”

You do that dude. And God bless you.

Ain’t that a lotta luck?

So whenever I hear about someone defying those long odds, I think it’s something you all should know about.

To those of you who have won big prizes, it can happen again.

It’s all about the randomness of chance.

Hell, I once interviewed a California winner who defied a trillion to one odds.

So beat that.

His story, by the way is in my book (see picture of book below).

OK, enough shameless promotion.

Randy Rittenbaugh, 42, of Pine Grove, accomplished the nearly impossible in September – on Sept. 2, he won $60,000 playing an instant lottery scratch-off game, and on Sept. 22, he won $1.2 million with a Cash 5 ticket.

“I’m a single dad, so this money will be a big help to my family,” Rittenbaugh said.

So what are the odds of him doing that? The odds of winning the top prize in the scratch-off game are 1 in 480,000, while odds of winning the Cash 5 jackpot prize are 1 in 962,598.

A local newspaper asked Lafayette College mathematics professor Lorenzo Tarldi to figure out the odds. He said the probability of buying one ticket in each of the lottery games and having the two tickets both be top winners is 462,047,040,000 to 1. But the probability of one person winning both lotteries is not quite the same thing because most lot-tery players, like Rittenbaugh, buy several tickets.

“I think the mathematically precise way to phrase the conclusion is that the odds against those two tickets both being top prize winners are over 462 billion to 1,” Tarldi wrote in an e-mail to The Republican-Herald newspaper.

“Wow.’ That’s one lucky man!” he added.

The winner said, “I put $20 in the lottery machine and started buying tickets. I probably wouldn’t have pushed the Money Comb button, but two of the ones I usually buy were out, so I pushed it.”

“I then went home and scratched all of them off; this was the last ticket I scratched. I wasn’t familiar with the game and it was a little confusing, you have to have touching numbers and I thought I had nine numbers touching for $1,000. I was excited about that. But then I realized I missed a number. I actually had 10 touching numbers.”

Twenty days later, Rittenbaugh played the daily game Cash 5 at Tri-Valley Pharmacy, Pine Grove, Pa.

“I couldn’t believe it when I heard the numbers and I had all five,” Rittenbaugh said. “I had to go to work and my dad was coming over to watch my daughter, so he was the first one I called. Then I kept it a secret until the next day.”

Rittenbaugh’s mother, Nancy Rhen, said she was in shock.

So would I be. So would you.

Awesome story. Great story. Inspiring story.

No?

Someone’s life is about to change for the better.

And it’s no dream.

One ticket holder with a ticket bought in California has won $133 million.

It could be one person. Or, it could be a lottery pool.

We’ll soon find out. And I’ll let you know.

The winning numbers, if you happen to be reading this in California, are:

04-10-26-32-41  and Mega ball 31.

Hope you (reading this) are the winner.

Of course, that’s true of most lottery stories, right?

Winning a quarter-million dollar prize has created lots of hoopla for one Douglasville, Georgia, woman and her family.

While waiting for a nephew to arrive at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Renee Dingle purchased a Mega Millions ticket and won a $250,000 prize.

Dingle, 42, had matched the first five winning numbers from the July 9 drawing.

“It’s exciting,” she said while claiming her prize.

Winning numbers from the July 9 drawing were: 1-31-33-34-50 and the Mega Ball was 41. The winning Quik Pik ticket was purchased at the Georgia Lottery’s Airport South kiosk.

While looking through her purse, Dingle decided to check her numbers on the Georgia Lottery’s website.

“I said, ‘Am I reading my numbers?’ ” she recalled. “Then I called the hot line to verify.”

Dingle, an occupational therapist, is a mother of two teenage boys, ages 16 and 14. She and her husband, Vince, have no immediate plans for their lottery win.

Because she purchased her lucky ticket while at the airport, Dingle anticipates purchasing a gift for her 18-year-old relative.

“I’ll get new shoes for my nephew,” she declared.

Make those the best shoes he’s ever had.

Donald Lynn is Illinois Lottery’s new millionaire, winning the $12.25 million jackpot in the June 12, 2010, Lotto drawing.

It was a quick pick, so thank the computer, Don.

The winning numbers were 6, 21, 29, 36, 43 and 46.

“Everyone has imagined what it would be like to win the jackpot, but the reality is different,” said Lynn, a carpenter and avid Lottery player who’s been playing since 1974.  “It hasn’t even hit me yet.  I still can’t even conceive what it is like.”

Lynn went to a nearby retailer to check his ticket the Monday following the drawing as usual before heading to work.  However, he was in for quite a shock when the cashier told him that he was the Lotto jackpot winner.

“I couldn’t believe it.  I called my wife right away and told her not to go anywhere because I needed her to give me a ride downtown to claim the ticket,” Lynn continued.

That must have been a helluva ride.

Once Lynn claimed the ticket, he and his wife treated both of their parents to a nice lunch to tell them about their new found fortune.  So far, Lynn has not decided what he and his family will do with the winnings.

Congratulations, guys. You’ve just changed the course of history of your family.

Invest your money wisely.

Two lucky tickets matched the June 23 Powerball winning numbers and will equally share a $97 million jackpot.

Those tickets were bought in Montana and Ohio.

It’s rare when two tickets …unrelated… pick winners, considering the huge odds against them.

But in happens.

In the 1990s two separate winners in Washington D.C. shared $90 million. It has never happened again that two separate tickets in one jurisdiction have won a Powerball jackpot.

So the jackpot for Powerball reverts to $20 million on June 26.

Good luck, everyone.