CLIVE, Iowa — An eastern Iowa man said he asked for a second set of eyes to check his lottery ticket after he realized he won a $150,000 Powerball prize.
“I went down to Casey’s and checked it on their scanner, and it said it was a $150,000 winner,” Justin Davis said Monday as he claimed his prize at the lottery’s Cedar Rapids regional office. “I was just shocked. I told the manager there I don’t believe that’s what that actually is. So he took the ticket, checked it, and was like, ‘Nope, that’s what it is!'”
Davis, 33, of Clinton, won the big prize in Saturday’s drawing by matching four of five white balls and the Powerball. His initial $50,000 was tripled because he opted for the $1 Power Play® option, which multiplies non-jackpot prizes by up to 10 times.
Davis bought his winning ticket at Hy-Vee, 901 S. Fourth St. in Clinton and said his win comes as a huge relief. He plans to use his winnings to retire debt and purchase a pair of e-bikes for his parents.
The Powerball jackpot, which has rolled for more than three months, is now up to an estimated $1 billionfor Wednesday’s drawing. That is the eighth-largest in Powerball history and the largest U.S. lottery jackpot so far this year.
Players in $2 Powerball choose their first five numbers from a pool of 69, and another number – called the Powerball – from a separate pool of 26. The Power Play option is available for an extra $1 per play.
Since getting its start in April 1992 in 15 states with jackpots that started at a guaranteed $2 million, Powerball has grown into one of the world’s biggest and most recognizable lottery games. Today Powerball is played by 49 lotteries with drawings at 9:59 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
