Richard Payne likes to choose his own numbers when he plays Powerball. One of his sets of numbers, consisting of birth dates and ages of loves ones, recently netted the St. Louis man a $50,000 prize.

Payne won the $50,000 prize by matching four white-ball numbers plus the Powerball for the June 1 drawing. He checked his tickets the next evening using the Missouri Lottery Official Mobile App.

Travis Sauer won $50,000 after matching four out of the five white-ball numbers, plus the Powerball number drawn in the May 25 drawing.

Sauer said he purchased the ticket on the Saturday of the drawing but didn’t check his ticket until the following Monday. Upon realizing he had won, he immediately called his father.

RALEIGH – A 66-year-old grandfather from Cumberland County has come forward to claim his $344.6 million Powerball prize, making him the largest jackpot winner in state history.

Baltimore – Robert Harnek has the good fortune of having a serious Maryland Lottery player for a best friend. The Harford County engineer rarely buys Lottery tickets, except when the two hang out, and then he only plays Powerball and Mega Millions.

RALEIGH – Just as many other lottery winners, Steve Lax of Archdale says his win – a $250,000 Powerball prize − couldn’t have come at a better time.

CLIVE, Iowa — A Des Moines-area man said he called person after person after realizing he’d won a $2 million Powerball® prize, and no one believed him – not even his wife or his dad. Rob Maser of Urbandale said he quickly realized that he must have a reputation as a jokester.

Baltimore – Milton Price of Maryland has big plans for when he hits the jackpot in a Powerball or Mega Millions game: “I’m going to open up a shelter. I want a church, a place where the homeless can come to shower, rest and eat.”

Baltimore – When multistate Lottery jackpot games begin rolling to ever-higher amounts, more and more people begin to play in hopes of becoming multimillionaires. Jin Jung of Olney joined in the chase that ended March 27 with the $768.4 million Powerball jackpot going to a Wisconsin player and a $50,000 prize going to him!

A St. Louis man recently made a routine stop at a convenience store to buy some gas and check his Powerball tickets, but the errand ended up being anything but routine.

Alonzo MacDonald said he plays Powerball about once a week. Several days after the April 6 drawing, he decided to check his tickets. He scanned his ticket for the April 6 drawing on a Check-A-Ticket machine at a convenience store, which advised him to claim his prize at a lottery office.

Baltimore – Al Ciappa plays the Maryland Lottery’s jackpot games – Powerball, Mega Millions and Cash4Life – regularly, so he was paying close attention to news reports when the Powerball jackpot rolled to $750 million — and eventually $768.4 million — for the March 27 drawing.

The 58-year-old carpenter wasn’t thinking about any prize other than winning the third-largest jackpot in U.S. history and the second largest in Powerball history.