News Releases 02/02

   
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NR 02-28-02 ... Broward County registers its 6th Lotto jackpot in the last 5 months. Prior to those 6 jackpots, Broward County had not recorded a single winner in 18 months [between 04-01-00 and 10-03-01], a time span which covered a total of 550 days and 156 Lotto draws. That was an unusually long "drought spell" for Florida's second most populated district. Thus, it appears that Broward has now regained its habitual prize-winning pattern, which scores a Lotto jackpot winner once every 14 draws on average.
 

Lotto Jackpot Winning Tickets Purchased In Broward County  [1988 - 2002]

Year 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 Total
Win 2 5 4 2 8 5 2 4 5 2 5 8 1 5 1 59


The Feb 27 jackpot of $23.00 million is the second from Hallandale
. Previously, a jackpot payout worth $3.33 million was awarded on 01-06-96 to a shared winning ticket from Hallandale. On that occasion, two other winning tickets - one from Fort Lauderdale and one from Islamorada - also received $3.33 millions each from a combined jackpot of $10.00 million.

The Feb 27 jackpot of $23.00 million is the 4th largest individual Lotto payout in Broward County.
 

Draw Date Numbers Pay / W W Jackpot City
327 08/06/94 12 22 28 34 36 40 $35.00 m 1 $35.00 m Tamarac
614 12/15/99 6 18 32 36 46 48 $27.08 m 3 $81.24 m Pompano Beach
562 02/06/99 4 12 20 32 42 47 $23.27 m 3 $69.80 m Lighthouse Point
844 02/27/02 1 10 17 18 26 39 $23.00 m 1 $23.00 m Hallandale


Altogether, 59 Lotto jackpot winning tickets have now been purchased in 22 different cities of Broward County. The district currently ranks second in total Lotto jackpot winners - behind Miami-Dade [124], and ahead of Palm Beach [58], Hillsborough [53] and Pinellas [50]. Broward County’s share of Lotto jackpot winners [59 of 712 = 8.29%] lies somewhat below its proportion of overall Florida State residents [1.62 million of 16 million = 10.12%].

Lotto Jackpots By City In Broward County

City in Broward W Last Jackpot
Coconut Creek 2 09-11-99
Cooper City 1 02-20-99
Dania 1 10-17-92
Davie 1 11-06-93
Deerfield Beach 2 10-30-99
Fort Lauderdale 16 10-13-01
Hallandale 2 02-27-02
Hollywood 2 05-09-92
Lauderdale Lakes 1 10-10-98
Lauderhill 1 05-01-93
Lighthouse Point 1 02-06-99
Margate 2 06-20-98
Miramar 1 10-01-88
North Lauderdale 1 09-16-89
Oakland Park 2 10-10-98
Pembroke Pines 5 10-13-01
Plantation 2 05-25-96
Pompano Beach 11 11-24-01
Sea Ranch Lakes 1 01-25-97
Sunrise 1 12-08-01
Tamarac 2 08-06-94
Wilton Manors 1 02-25-95
Total 59  


NR 02-27-02 ... Two players with tickets from Live Oak and Port St. Lucie share $228,122 Fantasy 5 jackpot on Feb 26 !!! Each winner receives $114,061. The winning ticket from Live Oak is the highest Fantasy 5 payout registered in Suwannee County.


NR 02-24-02 ... One player with South Bay ticket wins $259,155 Fantasy 5 jackpot on Feb 23 !!! This is the 4th highest individual payout in New Fantasy 5 history and the highest in Palm Beach County.


NR 02-24-02 ... Lotto registered 8 new number drought records in 2001. Numbers 22, 24 and 53 all set high marks at 49 consecutive draws, while number 17 made the smallest change from 30 to 31 draws. Number 24, on the other hand, made the biggest change by witnessing a substantial increase of 25 draws over its previous drought record of 24 draws set in 1993. By comparison, the oldest unbroken drought record still standing was established more than 13 years ago, when number 25 did not appear in 35 consecutive draws between 05-21-88 and 01-28-89. [Num = Number / o DR = old Drought Record / Δ = change / n DR = new Drought Record].

Lotto Number Drought Records Set In 2001

Num o DR Δ n DR From To
1 28 + 6 34 09-20-00 01-20-01
12 32 + 9 41 10-21-00 03-17-01
17 30 + 1 31 04-28-01 08-18-01
21 31 + 5 36 02-10-01 06-20-01
22 39 + 10 49 06-02-01 11-24-01
24 24 + 25 49 10-28-00 04-21-01
33 35 + 4 39 02-17-01 07-07-01
53 43 + 6 49 01-13-01 07-07-01


NR 02-23-02 ... One player with Miami ticket wins $670,668 Mega Money jackpot on Feb 22 !!! This is the 85th time that a ticket from Miami-Dade County wins a Mega Money jackpot. Miami-Dade has the highest number of Mega Money jackpot winners among the 34 Florida counties reporting winners. Following Miami-Dade are Broward [39], Palm Beach [23], Pinellas [20] and Hillsborough [16] Counties. However, even though Miami-Dade has the highest number of winners, it "only" ranks 15th in terms of average payout per winner [$199,361]. Number 1 in that category belongs to Flagler County - with an average payout of $659,809 per winner [1 winner] - and Number 2 to Bay County - with an average payout of $480,504 per winner [3 winners].


NR 02-20-02 ... One player with Gainesville ticket wins $231,294 Fantasy 5 jackpot on Feb 19 !!! This is the highest Fantasy 5 payout registered in Alachua County.


NR 02-14-02 ... One player with Tavernier ticket wins $239,373 Fantasy 5 jackpot on Feb 13 !!! This is the highest Fantasy 5 payout registered in Monroe County.


NR 02-14-02 ... Mid-February was the traditional time in the Roman empire for young men to meet and court prospective mates. Thus began the custom of young Roman men offering handwritten greetings to the women they admired on February 14. As Christianity spread, so did the tradition, and soon the "modern" St. Valentine's Day card was born. One of the earliest was sent from Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was a prisoner in the Tower of London in 1415. It is now housed in the British Museum. By the 17th century, handmade cards were oversized and ornate, while store-bought cards were smaller and expensive. The first American publisher of Valentine's cards was Esther Howland. Her elaborate lace cards of the 1870s cost from $5.00 to $10.00, with some selling for as much as $35.00. With the exception of Christmas, Americans exchange more cards on Valentine's Day than on any other day of the year.


Zephyrhills Man Claims $17 Million Lotto Jackpot

NR 02-12-02 ... On Monday, Feb 11, a retired professional truck driver from Zephyrhills claimed the $17 million Lotto jackpot from the Feb 9 drawing at Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee. Jack Park (65) chose to collect his award in form of a lump-sum payment of $9,517,647 before 27% in federal withholding taxes, instead of receiving 30 annual installments of approximately $647,000 each. He traveled to the state's capital in the company of his son and daughter-in-law.

"Winning the Lotto feels unusual," said Jack, who has been playing Florida Lottery games loyally for several years. "I never thought I'd have this experience! The most I'd won up until today was about $40 playing Mega Money."

"I got up early Sunday morning and checked my Lotto numbers in the newspaper like I normally do," indicated Jack, who retired from Yellow Freight Truck Systems six years ago.

"I looked at the numbers and said to myself 'I got four numbers, I got five numbers, I can't believe I've got all six numbers!' Then I fired up my computer and checked the numbers on the Lottery's web page. I must have checked the numbers a half-dozen times."

"Later I called my son Sam (39) and his wife Lesha (35), and they finally believed me," the winner remarked. "I then put the ticket in my lockbox at home until we drove up today."

Jack mentioned that he wants to use some of his winnings to buy a new motor home, a van, a new house, a new boat, and to take a family vacation in Washington D.C. to visit the Smithsonian Museum.

Jack bought his lucky ticket - one of three that he purchased for the Feb 9 drawing - at the Rightway Foods Store, located at 4334 Gall Boulevard in Zephyrhills. The outlet will receive a $10,000 retailer bonus for selling the Lotto jackpot winning ticket. Jack used Quick Pick to select his winning numbers.

Jack is the 14th Florida Lotto winner with a ticket purchased in Pasco County, the 2nd winner with a ticket from the city of Zephyrhills, and the 711th overall winner since the game began in 1988.


NR 02-10-02 ... The Feb 9 jackpot of $17.00 million is the second from Zephyrhills. Previously, a jackpot worth $5.36 million [on 09-05-98] was claimed with a sole winning ticket from Zephyrhills. Altogether, 14 Lotto jackpot winning tickets have now been purchased in 9 different cities in Pasco County, which represents a share of 1.97% [= 14 of 711] of all Lotto jackpot winning tickets. This share is slightly below Pasco's proportion of overall Florida State residents [350,000 of 16 million = 2.19%].

Lotto Jackpots By City In Pasco County

City in Pasco W Last Jackpot
Bayonet Point 1 06/24/89
Holiday 1 03/29/00
Hudson 2 03/21/92
Land O' Lakes 1 10/26/96
New Port Richey 4 01/20/01
Odessa 1 06/02/01
Port Richey 1 03/26/94
San Antonio 1 06/13/98
Zephyrhills 2 02/09/02
Total 14  


NR 02-07-02 ... Two players with tickets from Miami and Sarasota share $242,714 Fantasy 5 jackpot on Feb 6 !! Each winner receives $121,357. The winning ticket from Sarasota is the highest Fantasy 5 payout registered in Sarasota County.