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Quote:
Big Win for a Senator: $853,492 From Powerball
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 - While driving to the Capitol for a vote on Monday, Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire stopped at a service station to buy gasoline. Just for fun, he bought $20 worth of Powerball Lottery tickets.
This morning, he checked the newspaper and saw that he had a ticket that matched the first five winning numbers, though not the Powerball number. "Wow," he recalled thinking. "I must have won about a hundred bucks."
More, actually. Today, Mr. Gregg banked a check for $853,492.
"Every American believes in good fortune and good luck, and I'm no different than anyone else," he said at a news conference. He said he does not play the lottery often, but was intrigued by the jackpot of some $340 million.
A Powerball ticket winning the jackpot was sold in the Jacksonville, Ore., area but had not been claimed at last report. Mr. Gregg was one of 47 players who matched five numbers for a substantial consolation prize.
Mr. Gregg, a Republican who heads the Senate Budget Committee, has $1.5 million to $6.2 million in stocks, real estate and other investments, according to his latest financial disclosure form. He is one of at least 40 senators who enjoy millionaire status.
The senator said he and his wife, Kathleen, would talk about what to do with the money, once he has paid the taxes on it. Some of it may go to the Hugh Gregg Foundation, which supports New Hampshire charities and is named after the senator's late father, a former governor of the state.
Mr. Gregg said he was grateful to the service station clerk who ran after him as he was leaving because he had left one of his tickets behind. "She was a very pleasant young woman," he said. "She might have kept it, and for all I know it might have been the winning ticket."
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The talking heads on the local news this morning were going nuts over this.. they were completely appalled (dare i say jealous) that a millionaire would win the lottery. He doesn't need the money, so therefor he shouldn't have won.
For years, the slogan of the NY Lottery was all it takes is a dollar and a dream are rich people not allowed to have that dream too? I'd be willing to bet most of this guys money is tied up in paper anyhow.. now he's got actual cash...
Does it bother you that a weathly person won a share inthe lottery? How about the fact that he's a US Senator? Is this even a newsworthy event?
Personally, I say, good for him... He's on the budget committee so I'd imagine that he'd be pretty good at managing money - he's not going to go to a strip club and spend it all there...