Prior to the Powerball jackpot hitting a record high, a pair of Platte City residents claimed large lottery winnings at the end of December, including a split jackpot that Robert Bowlin used as a surprise Christmas present. Bowlin, 60, discovered on Dec. 3 that he matched all six winning numbers on the previous night’s Missouri Lottery drawing on a ticket bought at the Tracy, Mo. Trex Mart on Highway 92. The winning numbers were 12, 23, 25, 34, 40 and 42, and the $4 million prize ended up split between a pair of winners.
Bowlin kept the $2 million prize between himself, a financial advisor and certified public accountant.
“After looking at the numbers several times, I finally figured out (that I won),” Bowlin said. “It’s still a shock, and I don’t know if I believe it just yet.”
Bowlin, a retired operating engineer, gave the winning ticket to his wife on Christmas. Citing lingering shock over the win, the father of three and grandfather of two has yet to make any plans for the $2 million winnings, which he officially claimed on Dec. 29.
“She thought I was messing with her,” Bowlin said of his wife’s reaction. “Then when she found out that I wasn’t messing with her, she was happy. I think she was almost sick to her stomach, it seemed.”
The Trex Mart received a $2,500 bonus for selling one of the winning Lotto jackpot tickets for the Dec. 2 drawing.
Lotto is a twice-weekly draw game with jackpots that start at $1 million. The Lotto jackpot for Wednesday night’s drawing is currently $1.9 million. To date, there have been 234 jackpots awarded in Lotto, the longest-running Missouri Lottery draw game.
Although not the estimated $1 billion-plus prize available in Wednesday, Jan. 13’s drawing, Jared Herrin, 33, claimed $50,000 on Dec. 30 for that night’s Powerball drawing. He matched four of the numbers drawn and the Powerball, which were 12, 36, 38, 54, 61 and a Powerball of 22.
Herrin bought the ticket at the QuikTrip in Platte City while getting a soda.
“I saw a big jackpot and thought I would try to catch some of it, and I did. I got $50,000,” he said.
Herrin, who works at a wholesale grocery warehouse, said he had initially misread the ticket while checking his numbers over coffee and thought he had won a different prize.
“I actually got confused and thought I had won $1 million, and I started looking around on my phone and realized I only won $50,000,” he said. “I thought to myself, ‘That’s still a pretty good new year.’”
After sharing the news of his good fortune with his roommate, who demanded proof of the win, Herrin went to the Lottery’s Kansas City regional office to claim his prize. He plans to save the $50,000 as a nest egg for future investments but is hopeful to return to the Lottery office soon to claim an even bigger prize.
“I figure I was only one number off last time, so I got to get it right (next) time,” he said.
Powerball is a $2 per play multi-state draw game that features jackpots starting at $40 million. With the Powerball game change on Oct. 4, 2015, the prize for matching four numbers and the Powerball increased from $10,000 to $50,000. Powerball drawings are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 9:59 p.m.