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11-Member Player Pool From Port St. Lucie Claims $24 Million Lotto Jackpot

NR 11-22-01 ... On Wednesday, Nov 21, a group of 11 workers and owners of a Port St. Lucie insurance agency claimed the $24 million Lotto jackpot from the Nov 14 drawing. The 11 members of the group, known as "The Lucky Eleven Trust," have pooled their money together to play Lotto since the game began in 1988. They work at the Bill Gore and Ken R. Mayfield State Farm Insurance agency in Port St. Lucie, and yesterday sent two pool members and the husband of one of the members to Florida Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee to collect their winnings.

"Everyone else is back home working," said Susan Willett, who was responsible for collecting money and buying Lotto tickets for the pool. "Somebody had to keep the office open."

"We're just so very glad that everyone in our office was a winner!" said Deb Hendry, a pool member for almost 14 years now. "It would have been sad if someone was left out. This is great!"

At first, the group stored the winning ticket in Susan's desk drawer, but eventually decided to secure it in a safe deposit box at a local bank while making plans to go to Tallahassee and claim their award.

The "Lucky Eleven" chose to receive their prize in form of a one-time cash payment of $13,260,311, instead of accepting 30 annual installments of approximately $800,000 each. Each member's share is about $1.2 million.

The 11 pool participants are, in alphabetical order: Denise Averill, Stacey-Lyn Brown, Judi Crary, Susan Gore, Deb Hendry, Susan Hunter, Keith Mayfield, Cindy McDorman, Laura Moberly, Susan Willett and Kim Wray.

"I think everyone plans to keep working," Willett stated. "Our office is like a family. I don't think anyone is planning to leave now."

"This is a nest egg for us," Deb indicated. "It secures our future."

While they mentioned that they had no specific plans for the money, all group members expressed that they wanted to provide for their parents, children and families.

"My mother has always wanted to go to Hawaii," Deb added with a smile.

The group bought their lucky ticket at G & V Discount Beverage & Deli, located at 10626 South U.S. Highway 1 in Port St. Lucie, and the winning combination was selected through Quick Pick. The store will receive a $10,000 retailer bonus for selling the jackpot winning ticket.

The group is the 8^th Florida Lotto winner with a ticket purchased in St. Lucie County, the 6^th winner with a ticket from the city of Port St. Lucie, and the 702^nd overall winner since the game began in 1988.

Total ticket sales for this jackpot generated revenues of approximately $10 million for the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund for Florida's schools.

This $24 million jackpot is the third highest Lotto payout to a player pool. The second highest payout in the amount of $66.99 million went to the “Bent Pine Lottery Group Jackpot Trust” on July 22, 2000, a pool composed of 26 workers from the Bent Pine Golf Club in Vero Beach. The highest payout in the amount of $81.6 million belonged to the “Whispering Pines Lottery Trust” on March 29, 2000, a pool composed of 11 workers from the Whispering Pines Nursing Center in New Port Richey. [The ticket was purchased in nearby Holiday]. Both the “Bent Pine” and “Whispering Pines” jackpots are also the two highest individual ticket Lotto payouts in the history of the game. [Jackpots in $ millions].

Deerfield Beach Woman Claims Final 1/3 Share of $11 Million Lotto Jackpot

NR 11-17-01 ... On Friday, Nov 16, a woman from Deerfield Beach claimed the third and final share of the $11 million Lotto jackpot from the Oct 13 drawing at Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee. Elaine DeJulio (55), who had played the birth date numbers of the six children in her blended family, opted to collect her award in form of a lump-sum payment of $1,990,860, instead of receiving 30 annual installments of approximately $122,222 each. She traveled to the state’s capital in the company of her husband Dom.

Married just three years ago, Elaine DeJulio and Dom each brought three children to their new family, and then created the combination of numbers that made them new Lotto millionaires. The winning Lotto combination of the Oct 13 drawing [3 - 14 - 18 - 23 - 24 – 26] exactly matched the birth dates of their six children. Interestingly enough, another winner of this same jackpot – Mary Cordell (53) from Jacksonville – also used the birth dates of her children and grandchildren to precisely match the drawn numbers.

"I was reading the Sun Sentinel while I had coffee Sunday morning after the drawing," Elaine said. "I was just wondering if there was any good news in the newspaper - then I flipped the page and saw I had won the Lotto! I thought, 'That's good news.'"

"I called my husband and he said 'Let's read it again'," Elaine stated. "We had to keep reading it because you just can't believe it."

"My husband and I have always had cake," she said. "This is frosting!"

Dom mentioned that they play Lotto every week and that their largest previous win was a $500 payout in the Cash 3 game.

Elaine, who works in sales, conveyed that she had no immediate plans for the money, but indicated that she would like to travel some and also take care of the needs of their children. She added that both she and her husband intend to continue working at their present jobs.

Elaine bought her lucky ticket at Circle K, located at 2501 Stirling Road in Fort Lauderdale. The store will receive a one-third share of the $10,000 retailer bonus [= $3,333] for selling the jackpot winning ticket. The other two winners of the Oct 13 jackpot, Uric Garib (38) from Miramar and Mary Cordell (55) from Jacksonville, claimed their prizes on Oct 15 and Oct 18, respectively.

Elaine is the 56^th Florida Lotto winner with a ticket purchased in Broward County, the 16^th winner with a ticket from the city of Fort Lauderdale, and the 700^th overall winner since the game began in 1988.

Total ticket sales for this jackpot generated revenues of approximately $7.1 million for the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund for Florida's schools.

NR 11-17-01 ... One player with Lecanto ticket wins $643,464 Mega Money jackpot on Nov 16 !!! This is the first ever Mega Money jackpot from Lecanto and the seventh from Citrus County. Previously, tickets from Beverly Hills, Crystal River [2], Homosassa and Inverness [2] had claimed Mega Money jackpots in Citrus County.

NR 11-15-01 ... The Nov 14 prize of $24.00 million is the 8^th Lotto jackpot won by a ticket purchased in St. Lucie County. Six of those eight jackpots were claimed with tickets from Port St. Lucie [see below], and two of them with tickets from Fort Pierce. Note that the winning tickets for Draw # 231 [in 1992] and Draw # 356 [in 1995] were acquired at the same retail outlet in Port St. Lucie: Circle C Food Store at 903 East Prime Vista Blvd.

St. Lucie County currently ranks 21st in total Lotto jackpot winners, together with Leon County which has also registered eight winners. St. Lucie County’s share of Lotto jackpot winners [8 of 702 = 1.14%] lies slightly below its proportion of overall Florida State residents [193,000 of 16 million = 1.21%].

Lotto Jackpot Winning Tickets Purchased In Port St. Lucie  [in $ millions]

NR 11-08-01 ... Lotto's payout of $9,327.50 for 5/6 prize winners is the 13^th highest in history. Six Lotto 5/6 payouts have now been above $9,000 and another nine above $10,000. The highest Lotto 5/6 payout ever was registered on 17 Sep 1988, when 125 people claimed $12,582 each. The top seven 5/6 payouts of all time were recorded between 1988 and 1989. [Top 10 list of 5/6 Lotto payouts].

NR 11-03-01 ... One player with Mount Dora ticket wins $154,326 Mega Money jackpot on Nov 2 !!! This is the first ever Mega Money jackpot from Mount Dora and the fifth from Lake County. Previously, tickets from Lady Lake, Leesburg [2] and Minneola had claimed Mega Money jackpots in Lake County.

Lottery Introduces New Billboards

NR 11-02-01 ... The Florida Lottery is currently introducing a new billboard advertising design at 179 locations throughout the Sunshine State. The new signs, which advertise the current Lotto jackpot, are 100 feet wide, have green, blue and yellow colors, and feature a distinctively novel “jazzy” look. This new design officially ends the previous “Whole Lotta Lotto Going On” campaign [see pictures below], which had sported the jackpot ads in the traditional ocean blue and white colors.

The big billboards were designed by Cooper and Hayes, Inc. of Miami, the Lottery's advertising agency. While the look of the boards has changed, they will still be placed in highly visible locations throughout Florida, many of which are familiar to local players.

On the left-hand side, the new signs show the logo of the local TV station that airs live Lotto drawings on Wednesday and Saturday nights at 11 pm. On the right-hand side, the boards display the phrase "$11 Billion To Education Since 1988." In its mission to earn enhancement revenue for public education, the Florida Lottery has now generated more than $11.2 billion for Florida's schools and students since tickets first went on sale in 1988.

"Just as we are always updating our Lottery games to meet our players’ demands, we also need to change our old Lottery billboards to keep up with our new marketing themes for Lotto," Lottery Secretary David Griffin said.

The number of new Lottery signs per geographical area is as follows:

Outdoor signs have been used to advertise Lotto jackpots since the game began in 1988. Several of the other 38 U.S. lottery states also use billboards in the same capacity. For a specific location of a new Florida Lottery billboard, please contact the Lottery Communications Office at 850-487-7727.