Lotto's First Winning '$1K Per Day For Life' Ticket Bought In Hanover
BOSTON (CBS/AP) — A lottery ticket sold in Massachusetts is going to bring the lucky winner $1,000 a day for life.
The as-yet-unidentified winner is the first person to hit it rich in the new multi-state "Lucky for Life" game.
The game is the first to be played in all six New England states.
Lottery officials say the top prize-winning ticket of $1,000 a day, every day, for life was sold at Myette's Country Store in Hanover matched all six numbers drawn.
The ticket matched all six numbers drawn (1-2-6-10-19, Lucky Ball 15).
There were also two tickets in Thursday's drawing that won $25,000 for matching the first five numbers. Those tickets were also sold in Massachusetts.
Bill Donovan has hit it big with the lottery three times. He says he won a $25,000 jackpot in 1976 and a $20,000 windfall from a scratch ticket in 2001.
Now, he can count himself among the first of the state's "Lucky for Life" winners. He bought his winning ticket at Patriot Pub, an East Bridgewater hangout where he is a regular.
"They call me Mr. Lucky," he says.
Since he had five of the numbers, he picks up a quick $25,000. And on Friday night, he was picking up the tab for everyone at the bar at Patriot Pub.
Another $25,000 ticket was sold to someone in Canton.
But the big jackpot goes to someone who bought their ticket from Tracy Myette Brown at her family's convenience store in Hanover.
Myette's Country Store has, "been in business over 40 years and we've never had a big winner so we're thrilled," Brown explains.
She knows exactly who the winner is, but she has agreed to keep his identity a secret until he is ready to come forward. But she says he's a store regular – a single guy right around 40 years old, meaning he could have decades of big payouts ahead.
"I think it's amazing, I just think it's great," Brown says. "He's a good person so he's probably going to do some great things with it. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy."
The $2 lottery tickets are on sale in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine.
WBZ-TV's Jim Armstrong contributed to this report.
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