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.

Awesome.

The winning numbers are 12,17,21,23,30 and Mega ball 24.

Eleven tickets matched the first five numbers, but not the Mega ball.

In California, one ticket is worth $333,535 (they  distribute money differently).

The other 10 tickets are each worth $250,000.

They were bought in Massachussetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio (three winning tickets), Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.

Congratulations, winners.

The June 23 Powerball jackpot is a hefty $97 million.

Good luck, players.

You know, I was on the Michael Smerconish syndicated radio shows when my book first came out (check the shows out…they are broadcast all over America; he does a morning and afternoon show) and during the conversation he came up with the theory that given the large number of people who play the lottery, weird things happen…

Such as the weird, odds defying things that I write about in my book. See book cover to the right.

Here’s another one. A North Carolina man, playing in Virginia has won four big jackpots. Oh, not the Mega Millions game…but big jackpots nonetheless.

The man is running out of wall space to hang all of the over-sized winner checks he has collected from the Virginia Lottery.

His name is Steven Granger, on Henderson, N.C., he works in real estate, and bought all of his winning tickets at his favorite store: Bracey Mini Mart, on Highway 903 in Bracey, Virginia.

His most recent wins were Pick 4 drawings,  held daily at 1:59 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. The chances of matching all four numbers in exact order are 1 in 10,000.

He played 20 tickets with the same number.

“It’s been a good number for me.” Duh.

That remark may be the understatement of the year.

He selected the number combination 5-1-1-7 on 20 tickets in the Virginia Lottery’s May 22 Pick 4 day drawing, and they all won.  Each of his “exact order” tickets won $5,000 and each of the “50/50″ tickets won $2,700, for a grand total of $90,800.

That would be amazing enough, but it’s only part of the story.  Even more astonishing is the fact that Mr. Granger has done this twice before in Pick 4 and once in Cash 5.

On April 12, 2009, he won $90,800 when 5-1-1-7 was drawn and on May 10, 2009, he won $65,800 with that same combination. On September 28, 2005, he won $900,000 with nine winning Cash 5 tickets.

“I just play for fun,” he said as he claimed his latest prize. “It’s kind of a hobby. I’ve been really lucky.”

I’d say.

Awesome man.

Here are your top 5 jackpots, world-wide.

1. $190 million, Powerball, next draw May 26

2. $95 million, Lotto Texas, next draw May 26, tickets can be bought only in Texas

3. $64 million, Mega Millins, May 25

4. $40 million Canadian dollars ($37.8 million in USD), Lotto Max, May 28, tickets can be bought only in Canada

5. 15 million euros ($18.9 million in USD), Euro Millions, May 28, available in six European countries, including the U.K., Portugal, Spain and France. Draw is 9 p.m. in Paris, France.

Good luck, everyone.

Funny story. About three weeks after his divorce was finalized (they had stayed together for the sake of their child)… a British bus driver hit it big.

His former wife didn’t seem upset. After all, when the divorce came through, she had wished him good luck.

Good luck came to him in three months.

Just weeks after their split, bus driver Kevin Halstead won £2.3 million (US$3.5 million) playing the Lottery.

His ex-wife is now coming to terms with the fact that, but for the divorce, Mr. Halstead might have been legally obliged to share his windfall with her.

Instead, she is making do with her own bit of luck. As her ex was checking off his winning numbers, she won £5 on a scratchcard.

Halstead, 46, who shared a £4.6 million jackpot with one other ticket-holder, revealed how the couple married in 1994, only to split three years later.

Despite moving in with new partners, they remained husband and wife in name only for the sake of their daughter Jessica, 14.

They finally decided to complete the paperwork to make their break-up official three months ago.

Upon winning, Halstead, from Preston, opened a bottle of champagne with partner Josie Jones, 43, a care worker, in front of a Stagecoach bus with ‘ Congratulations Kevin!’ displayed instead of the destination.

He said he planned to continue driving the Preston-Bolton bus, which he has done for the past 17 years — after a few weeks off.

“I don’t want to cut myself off from my friends and I really enjoy my job,” Halstead said. “Maybe I will go part-time.”

He revealed that he and Miss Jones — herself a divorced mother of four — plan to swap their rented terrace home for a mansion nearer his mother Joyce.

An avid Liverpool FC fan, he also hopes to splash out on a season ticket at Anfield and take Miss Jones — who has never been abroad — on a foreign holiday.

He insisted he and his ex-wife remain on good terms and hinted he might give her some of his £2,302,668 win.

“This win will help my friends out and she is still my friend,” he said. “We divorced three months ago and split up about 13 years ago but we stayed friends — we did not get a divorce back then for the sake of our Jessica.

“We maintained being friends and stayed in contact every week. There is no bitterness. I know lots of marriages go through very bitter break-ups but ours didn’t.”

He also revealed that a Mrs. Halstead could soon be sharing his winnings after all. “Josie and I have both been married before and we are quite happy as it is — but who knows?” he said.

Last night, his former wife, 43, was putting on a brave face. She has already invited Mr. Halstead and Miss Jones for a celebratory cup of tea at her modest detached, three-bedroomed house in Coppull, Lancashire.

“It’s fantastic and I’m made up for them,” she said. “It really couldn’t have happened to a nicer couple.

“I’ve not heard anything about whether he’ll give me any money. That’s up to him I suppose. I’m just over the moon for him. It’s great news and he deserves every penny.”

See those folks above? They sold a winning $212 million Powerball lottery ticket to someone.

If they know who it is, they ain’t talking.

Someone who bought a Powerball lottery ticket last week at Gene’s II Deli in Morris Township, New Jersey, is a very rich person, but the winner of the $211.7 million jackpot has yet to come forward.

Lav Patel, a co-owner of the Speedwell Avenue deli and convenience store, said someone had called three times Monday from three different telephone numbers to verify the winning number.

“I don’t know if it’s the same person,” said Patel, who runs Gene’s with his cousin, Pinal Patel, and Rudrakant Joshi.

Patel hopes the winner is a regular customer.

Saturday’s drawing marks the first time a jackpot-winning Powerball ticket was bought  in New Jersey since the state started offering the game on Jan. 31.

The jackpot, which has been growing since Feb. 10, has a cash value of about $101.6 million.

The largest solo jackpot win in New Jersey lottery was in 2005 by Harold and Helen Lerner in Rutherford, who won $258 million in the Mega Millions.

We’ll let you know who the winner is when they step forward to collect their prize.

There were no jackpot winners in the Jan. 22 Mega Millions game so the top prize rolls over to a VERY attractive $121 million.

Helluva way to start the new year, by winning that, eh?

The Jan. 22 numbers are: 8,13,27,28,52 and Mega ball 9.

9 tickets matched the first five numbers (but not the 9 ball) and (except for the California tickets– see below for how much that is worth) each is worth $250,000.

They were bought in California (3 tickets matched 5 and each ticket is worth $79,168), Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, Texas (2 tickets matched the first five numbers) and Virginia.

The next draw, worth $121 million is Jan. 26 (MY BIRTHDAY).

The Powerball jackpot for Jan. 23 is $65 million.

There was NO big winner in the Jan. 22 Euro Millions draw in Paris.

The winning numbers are 4,22,27,36,44 and lucky stars 7,9.

The Jan. 29 draw is thus carrying a 28 million euro jackpot, or about $39.6 million, in U.S. dollars.

MY BOOK:

I want to thank everyone who bought a copy during the Christmas season.

Feel free to keep buying.

I am hard at work on a follow up. If you guys know any cool stories about winners, just let me know.