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“Jack Legg” of Mississippi won a $50,000 Powerball prize in the historic Jan. 13 drawing.Lucky winner’s wife convinced him to buy ticket
A Powerball novice from Mississippi has his wife to thank for a $50,000 prize in the Jan. 13 drawing.
The lucky winner, who works in the boat construction business, dubbed himself “Jack Legg” for his Maryland Lottery photo. He was on a temporary assignment in Delaware and Lottery luck drew him across the state line to Maryland.
When the Powerball jackpot reached a world record $1.6 billion for that historic drawing, his wife convinced him to buy a ticket. The 41-year-old visited the Goose Creek convenience store at 111 Truitt Street in Salisbury and paid $10 for five lines of Powerball numbers.
“The next morning, I read the winning numbers and saw how many of them I had and I freaked out a little bit,” Jack said. “It was shocking. It was hard to work that day, but I got through it. I kept thinking what I’d have won if I had one more number.”
The second line on his ticket matched five of the six numbers drawn. The Moss Point resident had four of the five white balls plus the red Power Ball, giving him a $50,000 prize. And if he’d matched that last white ball, Jack would have shared in the $1.6 billion top prize. Jackpot-winning tickets were sold in Florida, Tennessee and California for the Jan. 13 drawing.
Even though he was new to Powerball, the Mississippi resident selected his numbers himself instead of using the Lottery terminal’s Quick-Pick option. Jack played a combination of birth dates and other special dates. He’s purchased Powerball tickets in each drawing since his big win and nabbed a few smaller prizes along the way.
“My wife is from Florida and she used to play when we lived there,” he said. “I’m glad she asked me to get the ticket, but I don’t play a lot of Lottery games. I’d rather go hunting or fishing.”
The winner and his wife have been married 20 years and have three children. He said he had no special plans for his prize other than putting it into savings. There were 24 $50,000-winning tickets sold in Maryland for the Jan. 13 drawing. One other winner in that drawing added the Power Play option to his ticket and doubled his prize to $100,000. Maryland also saw three $1 million winners.