Jim said everyone at Milligan's was really excited. The people were stopping everyone in the store and making sure they all checked their tickets yesterday. “You should have seen them when my ticket turned out to be the right one!” said Jim. He currently works at the Stillwater Mine, and was planning to head home for his shift tonight. Since Wild Card 2 is a multi-state game, Jim won't receive his winnings for a couple more weeks, as the jackpot money has to be collected from all the states. “That's OK,” he said. “I can get some financial plans put together in the meantime.”  He hasn't had much time to think about what he will do with his prize money, but plans on paying bills and setting up an account for his 3-year-old daughter.

Anna Pearl Rowell claimed her $110,000 winning Wild Card check from the Idaho Lottery and then retired from her service as the Office Manager for the Canyon County Assessor’s Office.Rowell became the third Wild Card jackpot winner from Idaho in the last four months when she matched all of her numbers and the Wild Card from the draw held on Saturday, November 3, 2007. “It’s a pretty great feeling when all your numbers start to match up,” said an excited Rowell. “I read the numbers in the paper on Sunday morning and couldn’t believe it. I started reading the numbers and looking at my ticket and then said, ‘Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!’ My husband thought the dog had been run over.”

This was Rowell’s fifth big Lottery win. In October 2002, Rowell won a Dodge Ram Quad-cab pick-up truck through the Idaho Lottery’s “Bucks and Trucks” second chance scratch game promotion. In July 2004, Rowell hit lottery luck again when she won $15,000 playing as a contestant in the Idaho Lottery’s 15th Anniversary Game Show. And those are just Rowell’s highest wins. Earlier in 2004 she won $1,500 on the Idaho Lottery's 15th Anniversary scratch ticket and in 2005 she won a Pac-Man video arcade through another second chance draw. When asked the secret to her lucky success Rowell only offered, “Well, I tell my husband he’s really lucky to have me.”Rowell had planned to retire on November 16 before hitting it big. Her win just happened to be a great big coincidence. “This is great because now I’ll be able to pay off my house,” she said happily. With five big Lottery wins, retired, and no longer having a house payment, Rowell certainly is living the dream.

Idaho Player Wins Wild Card 2 Jackpot!
For the second time in three months, a player from Idaho has struck it rich by hitting the Wild Card 2 jackpot.  Barbara Richart from Payette won the $110,000 jackpot from the September 26, 2007 draw.

“I'm trying to breathe,” exclaimed the Payette County Prosecutor when she claimed her winnings at Lottery Headquarters. “It's really real?” Richart shops regularly at Lonnie's Market in Payette, the store that sold the winning ticket. “I went to the store to get bread on my lunch break and there was a sign that said someone in Payette had won the jackpot,” described Richart of how she found out she was the winner.  “I was so excited, I couldn't eat my lunch.”

When she returned to her office, she pulled up the Lottery's website and called her office in to look at it.  “There's a Lottery winner from Payette,” she announced pointing a finger at herself. “And it's me.”  Evidently one of her co-workers cried with tears of joy. “This is my retirement fund,” she said. “It'll get me there a couple of years earlier.” “ Idaho continues to be a lucky state for our lottery players,” stated Jeff Anderson, Idaho Lottery Director.

In early July, Covert had just returned from a river trip on the Payette when he heard the news that someone had won the Wild Card jackpot from the Pocatello area. “It was Monday morning about 9 a.m. when I checked my ticket.  When I saw all the numbers, and then that ace of spades, my heart beat went up a little,” admitted Covert. He then treated himself to a little self-meditating under a shade tree at his house to contemplate what to do next.

Despite the excitement surrounding Pocatello following the announcement of the winning ticket, Covert waited a month to come forward and claim his jackpot. “I had a lot of commitments with family and friends early in July,” explained Covert, a long time resident of the Pocatello area. “Then it was a matter of quietly taking care of some details with my work and meeting with my financial planner to gets matters organized.” While Covert is still considering his long-term options for the future, he does plan to invest a large majority of his winnings. Asked if his lifestyle would change any, Covert smiled and said, “I can tell you, no more cheap hotel rooms, no more cheap restaurants, Tom Bodett, turn off your light.”

$1.1 Million Wild Card 2 Jackpot Claimed in Montana!
Daniel Nisbet of Helena, Montana, has claimed a $1,127,000 Wild Card jackpot. He won the prize by matching all five winning numbers plus the Wild Card in the Wednesday, August 16, drawing. “I always play both Wild Card and Hot Lotto,” he said. “That’s because the odds of winning something are better.” In this case, the odds were way better.

When a nervous Nisbet called his wife to tell her the news, she didn’t believe him. “She thinks it’s a joke,” he said. When a lottery employee confirmed the win, she didn’t believe him, either. Pondering what he might do with his winnings, he mentioned paying off his house, having the money to send his three children to college, becoming debt–free. “I might even retire.” Nisbet works for the state and purchased his winning ticket, a quick pick, at Green Meadow Market in Helena.