Lottery player keeps big win secret from his family until he has the ‘oversized check’
When a Colorado man realized he won a big Powerball prize, he kept the amount a secret — even from his family.
The Montrose man patiently waited for a “big reveal,” Colorado Lottery officials said in a Feb. 24 news release.
With no inkling of what his prize was worth, the lottery player’s family tagged along with him to Grand Junction to claim his prize, lottery officials said.
Finally, with “the oversized check in his hands,” the man’s family learned he had won a $50,000 prize by matching four numbers and the Powerball.
“They couldn’t have been more delighted,” lottery officials said.
When the man, who plays lottery games a “couple times a month,” initially checked the numbers on his Powerball ticket, he was in shock.
“Wow,” the man told lottery officials he thought to himself. “Is this real?”
The Colorado Department of Transportation worker told lottery officials he plans to invest some of his winnings “and, of course, get a hot tub.”
Montrose is about a 60-mile drive southeast from Grand Junction.
What to know about Powerball
To score the jackpot in the Powerball, a player must match all five white balls and the red Powerball.
The odds of scoring the jackpot prize are 1 in 292,201,338.
Tickets can be bought on the day of the drawing, but sales times and price vary by state.
Drawings are broadcast Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays at 10:59 p.m. ET and can be streamed online.
Powerball is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
This story was originally published February 25, 2025 at 11:51 AM with the headline "Lottery player keeps big win secret from his family until he has the ‘oversized check’."
