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Powerball Billion Dollar Jackpot Winners Used Quick Pick Ticket For Winning Numbers

By Charisse Van Horn
Published on: 18:55 PST, Jan 29, 2016

The Tennessee couple that won the Powerball, billion dollar jackpot on Jan. 13, 2016, used a Quick Pick ticket for the winning numbers. The couple, John and Lisa Robinson, appeared on the Ellen Degeneres show and explained how they purchased the ticket and their reaction when they find out they were winners. During the explanation, John Robinson stated that he purchased four Quick Pick tickets, returned home and his wife Lisa later checked the tickets with the winning numbers only to discover one of their Quick Pick tickets matched all five winning numbers as well as the Powerball.

Speaking to Ellen, John Robinson shared his account of purchasing the winning Powerball tickets.

“I stopped at the store and I just went in there and told the lady I want four quick-pick tickets, got the tickets, came home and I handed them to her [Lisa], told her I don’t feel good so I’m fixin’ [sic] to go lay down.”

There are two major jackpot lottery games in the United States: Powerball and Mega Millions. Both games are capable of having extremely large jackpots if no one matches all winning numbers, and are played in more than 40 states. When playing either Mega Millions or Powerball, you have the choice of selecting your own numbers or letting the computer choose the numbers for you. On Jan. 13, 2016, the largest Powerball jackpot in history rose to $1.58 billion and resulted in three winning lottery tickets sold in California, Florida and Tennessee. The California and Florida winners have yet to claim their prize, but the Robinson’s have. As the Robinsons let the computer pick all their numbers and won, more people are opting to use the Quick Pick selection for choosing their Powerball numbers.

https://youtu.be/3nq5ApEqeW4

In addition to the Robinson’s win, there were other big winners on Jan. 13, 2016. According to reports by the Missouri Lottery, several people won non-jackpot prizes in the billion dollar jackpot, and many used Quick Pick numbers.

One lucky winner, Nathan Guyer, won $50,000 with a Quick Pick ticket. The Missouri Lottery also reported that Kanen Craig won $50,000 in the same drawing using a Quick Pick ticket. And in the same drawing, the Missouri Lottery reported that 15 firefighters used a Quick Pick ticket that resulted in a $50,000 win. While there are some experts in playing the lottery who warn against using Quick Pick tickets, the number of winners begs to differ with the advice that this isn’t a good strategy. The proof is with the winners, and a vast majority of Powerball winners do so by using Quick Pick tickets.

Seven-time lottery winner Richard Lustig has shared some of his tips for winning the lottery, including Powerball, and he specifically states not to buy Quick Picks. It’s unclear whether Lustig still recommends this advice, as there appears to be a surge of Powerball winners who use Quick Picks. You can listen to Richard Lustig’s advice in the video player below.

https://youtu.be/gN4uKCNz2kE

What do you think of Richard Lustig’s advice? Do you play Powerball and Mega Millions, and if so, do you choose your own numbers or play Quick Picks or Easy Picks? Are you more likely to try Quick Picks now that one of the winners of the largest Powerball jackpot in history won by the computer picking the numbers? Are you surprised that so many Powerball winning numbers are selected by computers? What are your thoughts?

[Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]

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