Lottery

A single winning ticket for a record Powerball lottery jackpot worth $590.5 million was sold in Florida, organizers said late Saturday, but there was no word about who won. The winning numbers from Saturday night's drawing were: 10, 13, 14, 22 and 52, with a Powerball number of 11. The odds of winning were put at one in 175 million. The winning ticket was sold at a Publix supermarket in Zephyrhills, a suburb of Tampa, according to the Florida Lottery. The prize tempted many Marylanders to buy tickets for the lottery game before the 11 p.m. drawing.

The world is waiting Sunday to find out who bought the Powerball jackpot winning ticket at a Publix supermarket in Zephyrhills, Fla. Nobody had come forward by mid-morning.  It could take a few days before anybody claims the prize, but it's best to be skeptical of anything that comes out before lottery officials make a formal announcement. Remember the circus surrounding the Mega Millions jackpot winner sold in Maryland last year? It started in the middle of the night, just after it became clear that a hot ticket had been sold in Baltimore County.

Would you hire a company to undertake a $7 million job that had virtually no employees, no equipment and no experience to handle the task?Of course not, but the Schaefer administration may have other ideas.That's because the company in this instance is WBS Inc., a year-old Baltimore-based firm associated with William L. "Little Willie" Adams, a longtime political ally of the governor. When the lottery giant GTECH Corp. bid and won Maryland's $65 million lottery computer contract, it identified WBS as one of the minority businesses that would receive a sizable chunk of the financial action for printing lottery tickets.

The first caller told Norman Breidenbaugh he had won $2.5 million in a foreign sweepstakes, but there was a catch: Breidenbaugh needed to send $2,000 in fees before collecting his earnings. Other calls followed, promising Breidenbaugh millions more - even a Mercedes Benz - as long as he would wire some money to pay taxes on the prizes. He obliged, sending more than $400,000 over about six years, hoping the promised winnings would cover his wife's medical expenses. The prizes never came.

A WHIFF OF scandal, a hint of mystery. It must be lottery time. Depending on which side you believe, Maryland's new contract to run the daily lottery games is either on the verge of becoming a debacle or the losing bidder is trying to stir up trouble.Much is riding on this $43 million contract. Given that Maryland reaps $410 million a year from its lottery activities, a botched transition would cost taxpayers dearly. The new operator, too, stands to suffer mightily if there is a foul-up. Automated Wagering International is now the Avis of the lottery-gaming world, but if its Maryland venture flops, the company may never recover.

THE STATE of Maryland held the winning lottery ticket in last Tuesday's big drawing. When officials opened two sealed bids for supplying and maintaining lottery computers for the next five years, they were shocked at the bargain-basement price they got. The low bid was $40 million -- less than half the $95 million the state is currently paying. Now that's a good deal.Automated Wagering International Inc. is the apparent winner. It is no newcomer to the computer lottery business since it provides similar services to the neighboring states of Pennsylvania and Delaware.

FOR MOST BALTIMOREANS, memories of Thanksgivings past are of turkey dinners, the whole family gathered around, the parades, the City-Poly football classics. But for Elmer "Bud" Klunk Thanksgiving meant "the lottery."For years, he worked on Thanksgivings as maitre d at one of Baltimore's most popular restaurants of its day -- Miller Brothers, which was located on Fayette Street, near where the Omni Hotel is today.Klunk recalled the Great Miller Brothers' Employee Turkey Dinner Lottery. "On the morning of every Thanksgiving Day," Mr. Klunk recalled, "the 100 or so employees set up a lottery -- $1 got you into the action.

A 40-year-old Pennsylvania woman who went to Western Maryland to buy flowers came away March 29 with more than just a bouquet -- she won $1,000 a week for life in a new Maryland lottery game.The woman, identified by lottery officials as "S. Fike," bought a "Win for Life" $2 scratch-off ticket at Chestnut Ridge Liquors in Grantsville, Garrett County, the officials said.Pub Date: 4/09/97

Because of what school officials are calling an overwhelming response, Monarch Academy Public Charter School, will hold a lottery to choose its first students. The Glen Burnie school has received more than 350 applications but has room for about 195 students this fall, when the school will open to kindergarten, first- and fifth-grade students. "We couldn't be more pleased with the community's overwhelming response to Monarch Academy, and we're looking forward to providing our incoming students with a unique and enriched learning experience this fall," said Maurine E. Larkin, Monarch's principal.

There is, pundits say, little chance that Mayor Schmoke will get the requisite General Assembly approval for his proposal to add a 10-cent surcharge on lottery tickets. But it shows the depths to which the city's financial condition has plunged, and the extent to which the state has all but ignored its plight, that the most hopeful way to adequately fund the police department is to add a dime to the price of a lottery ticket.We have noted countless times on these pages our opposition to lotteries -- not merely because they are terribly fickle sources of revenue, but more so because they amount to little more than a tax on the poor, who are disproportionately ensnared by the state pitch that, "it could be you."

Two Baltimore city lawmakers have proposed legislation that would draw funding from the state's lottery revenue to support expanding early childhood education programs. The legislation would create a program called "Race to the Tots," -- named after the federal "Race to the Top" program- - and allow local districts to compete for grants that would "stimulate innovation for and expand access to high-quality early childhood education in Maryland," according to a release sent jointly by the bill's sponsors Sen. Bill Ferguson and Del. Sandy Rosenberg.

Imagine marrying the love of your life and winning the lottery a few weeks later. This is exactly what happened to Debby Opper, 51, of Owings Mills, last month. On Dec. 1, Opper married Hassan Manafikhalesi, 58, at a ceremony and reception at Martin's West in Baltimore. And on Dec. 28, she won $250,000 in the Mega Millions prize drawing. "It's been quite a month for us," says Opper. The two met at a singles dance about six years ago. When Manafikhalesi popped the question in October 2012, the couple quickly went to work planning a wedding but hadn't scheduled a lengthy honeymoon because Opper was taking care of her mother, who lived in a nursing home.

Charrlene Cebrianwarned her boss at Steve's Lunch in Cross Street Market on Wednesday that she might not come into work for her next shift. The Powerball player was just one of millions who hoped the 11 p.m. drawing would bring them the $588 million jackpot. Though the odds of winning were astronomical - one in more than 175 million - the money convinced many to join in. The hefty jackpot jumped almost $200 million Wednesday with the increase in sales as more players bought the small sheets of paper bearing what they hoped would be the winning numbers, which turned out to be 05 16 22 23 29 with a Powerball of 06. Winning tickets were purchased in Arizona and Missouri, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association.

The Powerball jackpot reached an estimated $250 million, after no winner emerged from Saturday night's drawing. The cash value is $166.8 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association. The game is played in 42 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. Virgin Islands. The most recent big winner in Maryland was a couple who bought the winning $128.8 million at a family-owned restaurant and liquor store in Cecil County last Christmas Eve. That was the second-largest winning ticket ever sold in the state, according to the lottery.

An audit of Maryland's video lottery terminal program has found that the state has not yet implemented a way to direct proceeds to the state's small business community, as directed by a 2008 law. The Board of Public Works has accumulated the funds, which now total $2.6 million, for several years. The report Thursday from the Office of Legislative Audits found that, while the funds in the account for small and minority- and women-owned businesses have been properly collected and accounted for, the Board of Public Works has not disbursed any as capital investments or loans.

Gov. Martin O'Malley has named the members of a powerful new body that will oversee most legal gambling in Maryland, retaining five members of the current Lottery Commission and adding two prominent Baltimore-area business leaders. Among the new appointees to the State Lottery and Gaming Control Commission is John Morton III, a retired bank president who chaired the advisory work group that helped put together the gambling expansion legislation that the General Assembly approved during a special session in August.

NOT ONLY is lottery fever spreading among the states, but some federal lawmakers are contemplating a national counterpart that would ease budgetary woes. If ever there were a bad revenue enhancer, a lottery is it.For one reason, once enacted, a lottery is here to stay -- not because it's a good idea but because it's a selective tax. You pay it only if you play the game. The majority of the public wants it on the expectation that numerous individuals Thomas V.DiBaccomight profit on it. Yet the reality is that winning big from the lottery is unlikely and that most people who play need to use their money in better ways (it's a regressive tax on the poor)

Nick Ruth is $250,000 richer, thanks to a winning Mega Millions ticket. But this 19-year-old Towson resident is not thinking about a BMW or a Harley or even a trip to the Bahamas. "I have no major plans besides donating," he said. Nicholas David Ruth battled childhood leukemia and has been in remission for nearly five years. His winnings mean he can give back to the many charities who helped him, he said. Maybe a donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation will help another critically ill kid take a cruise, as he did, he said.

Nicholas Ruth's lottery ticket held the winning numbers for a Mega Millions second-tier prize — $250,000 — and he didn't even know it. The Towson resident bought a ticket was at 7-Eleven, on Loch Raven Boulevard, and didn't check his numbers until late Saturday night. Even then, he wasn't sure. "I checked it about eight times before I realized all the numbers matched," Ruth said. "My mom checked it another 15 times. We got all excited and started jumping up and down. " He then called his brother at 1:30 a.m. The Archbishop Curley High graduate started buying lottery tickets every Tuesday and Friday when he turned 18. Winning was never a possibility, he thought, but it was the idea that kept him hooked.