PLAY THE GAME THAT’S “HOT!”

For a lottery game that’s really “hot,” visit an authorized retailer in the District of Columbia, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Vermont, or West Virginia and get in on the chance to win a cool million or more! Hot Lotto jackpots start at $1 million and continue to grow until someone wins.

Hot Lotto Winner Remains Calm about $10,000 Win
“I was calm because I’m an old man now, and I didn’t want to have a heart attack,” said longtime Hot Lotto player Robert Gray. “I was born in 1926,” continued the Rockville, Maryland resident who correctly matched five numbers to win $10,000 in the July 15, 2009 drawing.

With subdued excitement, Gray stated that he has been playing Hot Lotto since the D.C. Lottery offered it to players in 2004 and plans to pay a few bills with his prize money. Gray uses the advanced play option and usually plays the same numbers. He said he will also continue to spend his time with his family. A father of eight, Gray has grandchildren and great grandchildren who he visits regularly. “There is always someplace to go,” Gray noted, including to a D.C. Lottery retailer to buy more lottery tickets.

Gray purchased his winning ticket at Cork ‘N Bottle, 7421 Georgia Avenue, N.W.

Oklahoma Resident Cashes In Playing Hot Lotto with $10,000 Win
Travis Olive of Stilwell is $10,000 richer from playing Hot Lotto. He learned of his win on Sunday when he called the Oklahoma Lottery Commission headquarters to get the winning numbers from the Saturday, August 1st drawing.

Olive purchased his ticket at the Fiesta Mart at 300 S. 2nd in Stilwell and received his winning numbers through Quick Pick.

“I always buy my tickets there because they’re nice and friendly,” Olive said.

For now, Olive plans on paying off his Blazer.

“Winning a prize this large is one of those things you think is too good to be true,” he said, adding that he regularly plays the Sizzler multiplier.

Sheppard purchased his ticket from T&T Quick Stop at 100 W. Main in Roff. He doesn’t have any immediate plans for his winnings but said he will probably be spending most of it on his children.

Minnesota Resident Claims $3.62 million Hot Lotto Jackpot!
Edward M. Ruiz of Canyon is Minnesota’s newest lottery millionaire. The single quick-pick ticket Ruiz purchased for the Hot Lotto drawing on Feb. 28 won the $3.62 million jackpot. Ruiz selected the cash option of $2.37 million.

On Saturday night (Feb. 28), as the winning Hot Lotto numbers scrolled along the bottom of his television screen, Ruiz wrote them down on the newspaper and set the paper aside. The next evening he asked his wife, Mary Lou, to check the numbers. As she compared those numbers to the numbers on the ticket, she said, “We have the Hot Ball. We have 1 [number]. We have 2 [numbers]. We have them all! We won!” Edward remembers, “I got up immediately from my chair, took the ticket, looked at the newspaper, looked at the ticket and said, ‘I can’t believe this!’ and got on the Internet.”

A couple of days after winning the Hot Lotto jackpot, Edward said, “I stopped at the store the other day and bought two Powerball tickets. I didn’t buy a Hot Lotto ticket because the jackpot was only $1 million because somebody won it!”

Immediately after the ticket was validated at Lottery headquarters in Roseville on March 4, Edward looked at his family and said, “You’re looking at a millionaire!” With a smile on his face, Edward offered the following advice: “You can’t win if you don’t buy a ticket. It only takes one!”

Wilcox purchased $1 Hot Lotto, $1 Powerball, and $5 Super Kansas Cash, all Quick Picks, for the Wednesday, January 21 drawings. When he checked his tickets the next day, he found out that his Hot Lotto ticket matched the first five numbers, but not the Hot Ball, winning him a prize of $10,000!

“I must have called at least 20 people. I told everyone I could think of,” said Wilcox. “Then I put the ticket in my dad’s fireproof safe.”Wilcox plans to use his prize money to pay off a couple of credit cards and to take his girlfriend to Las Vegas.

“My advice to other players is to listen to that instinct – it can pay off!” said the winner.

Oklahoma Couple Wins $10K Playing Hot Lotto
Marty and Toni Byrd call themselves the ‘Wednesday and Saturday’ players because they don’t miss a draw on either day. Recently their persistence paid off having won $10,000 in cash playing Hot Lotto. The Byrd’s have only played the Lottery for a year and they chose their winning numbers through Easy Pick.

Both Toni and Marty were traveling separately out of town when they won. “We had purchased a multi-draw ticket but when we got home, things were hectic since we had been gone,” said Toni. “Finally, as we were trying to get organized, Marty sat down to check a few of the lottery tickets we had—even a few we had purchased from other states.”

Before Marty began checking the tickets, Toni mentioned that she had a feeling they would have some luck with their tickets. When Marty discovered they had won $10,000, he was in disbelief. “I called my wife in to reread the numbers and make sure I was looking at them correctly,” said Marty. “I typed the numbers into the website to make sure we had won and even called the Lottery the next day to get another confirmation of the winning numbers.”

For now, the Byrd’s plan to tithe 10 percent of their winnings and pay off a few bills. What they will do with the rest of their money hasn’t been decided yet. With a daughter working in the education field, Toni and Marty appreciate the Lottery’s proceeds benefiting Oklahoma’s education. “We think anything that can help support education is wonderful and very important,” said Toni.

The winning ticket was a $10 Quick Pick. The winning play was the seventh play out of ten plays on the ticket. “Sometimes I pick my numbers, and sometimes I let the computer do it,” said the winner. “This time I let the computer do it.”

The winner had a choice of taking the prize as an annuity or in cash. He chose the cash. The cash option is $1,911,977.  The winner says he plans to use the prize money to get “completely out of debt” and to help family members. The winner and his family live in Belle Plaine, Kansas. The lucky ticket was sold by EWS Retail Liquor, located  in Belle Plaine.

“I always buy Quick Pick tickets when I play Hot Lotto,” explained the winner.  “I play twice a week and purchase a minimum of $20 each time.  The most I’ve won before now was $100, twice.”

As the winner of the Hot Lotto jackpot, he had a choice – take the grand prize as an annuity paid over 24 years (25 payments), or take a cash lump sum payment.  The winner took the lump sum payment, which is $3.2 million before taxes.

The winner, who is a business owner, plans to continue working.

“I’ve worked hard all my life,” the winner said.  “I wouldn’t know what to do if I wasn’t busy.”

However, the Pittsburg resident does plan to enjoy his winnings.

“I plan to take my kids and grandkids on vacation,” said the winner.  “We’re thinking about a cruise.”

The store that sold the jackpot-winning Hot Lotto ticket is Frontenac’rs, located in Frontenac, Kansas.

Oklahoma Resident Claims $3.8 Million Hot Lotto Jackpot!
Oklahoma City resident, Steve Trimble, is Oklahoma 's first Hot Lotto jackpot winner with a ticket worth $3.8 million. He purchased the winning ticket at Q-Max, a convenience store located in Oklahoma City. A former employee at Oklahoma City 's CMC Steel Group, Trimble quit his job the day after learning he had the winning ticket. He said his hands were shaking and he could barely drive due to the excitement.

“I've been working since I was 12 years old,” said 50-year-old Trimble. “I never thought I would be a millionaire and I'm looking forward to enjoying my early retirement.” His tentative plans for the future include playing more golf, traveling and investing his earnings. He let the computer pick his number and he feels blessed to have won. Hot Lotto launched in Oklahoma on Jan. 3, 2008.

Cody purchased his ticket at Freedom Valu Center in Red Wing. He said that he stops at the store twice a week to fill his pickup with gasoline for his work commute to Smead Manufacturing in Hastings. On Thanksgiving morning, he returned to the store and asked the clerk to scan his ticket. Cody said that a message printed indicating that the prize was too large to redeem at the store. The store clerk then printed the winning numbers and realized Cody was the jackpot winner. “She was very gracious and kind to me,” said Cody.

New Mexico Man Shares $2 Million Hot Lotto Jackpot!
A Farmington man has claimed his share of the August 4th Hot Lotto jackpot.  Edward Boyd and a player in Minnesota both had tickets with the jackpot winning numbers.  Boyd and the Minnesota player will share the estimated $2 million annuity jackpot equally. Each winner can choose between an estimated $1 million annuity option and a $588,818 pre-tax cash option.

Boyd, 51, buys both Hot Lotto and Powerball tickets every Wednesday and Saturday at the 7-2-11 Food Store in Farmington. Even though he knew a winning jackpot ticket had been sold in New Mexico, Boyd was in no hurry to check his ticket. The winning ticket languished in his truck for several days until Boyd sold the vehicle and began cleaning it out for the new owner. “The ticket was in a trash bag in my living room,” Boyd said. He plans to use the prize to help his family and invest the remainder in real estate.

Second Time's the Charm for Minnesota Man!
It may have only been the second time Ebenezer Longe of Minneapolis purchased a Hot Lotto ticket, but that's all it took. A ticket Longe purchased for the Aug. 4 drawing was one of two sold to match all six winning numbers to win half of the $2 million jackpot.

Longe says he is a regular player of Powerball and other Minnesota games, but decided to try Hot Lotto after a store clerk at Bryn Mawr Market in Minneapolis recommended the game. “I didn't win on the first ticket so I wasn't interested in buying another one,” said Longe. Until the store clerk convinced him otherwise. “He told me, ‘You need to buy Hot Lotto, there's a better chance of winning,'” recalled Longe. So he decided to give the game another try — and the clerk's persistence paid off for Longe in a big way!