LINCOLN, Neb.– Patricia Rivera of North Platte won $138,000 playing Pick 5 from the Nebraska Lottery.
Rivera purchased her winning ticket from Kwik Stop #02 at 902 North Jeffers St. in North Platte. Rivera’s ticket contained four plays for the September 29 drawing, one of which had the winning combination 08, 10, 21, 28, 29.
Rivera claimed her prize on October 7 at the Nebraska Lottery’s Lincoln offices and said she only plays Pick 5 once a month or so whenever the mood strikes her.
A few days earlier, the Rivera family had gone out for Chinese food and they’d opened a few fortune cookies after dinner.
“I found one that said I’d win a prize,” Rivera said. “I just read the fortunes, and throw the rest away, but my daughter said eat the cookie.”
She ate the cookie and then, while she was out for a bag of ice a couple of days later, Rivera pulled out her fortunes and played the numbers they contained on Pick 5.
She didn’t check her numbers until a few days later, when she scanned her tickets with the Nebraska Lottery’s app.
“I’m still in shock,” Rivera said.
Rivera said she’s planning to pay off some bills, buy a couple of new vehicles for her and her husband and do some home renovations.
Nebraska Pick 5 is Nebraska’s unique Lottery game: all the proceeds from Nebraska Pick 5 stay in Nebraska, and all the winning tickets are sold in Nebraska at Nebraska Lottery Lotto game retailers. The odds of winning the Nebraska Pick 5 jackpot, which starts at $50,000 and grows by $4,000 each drawing that is not won, are 1 in 501,942 while the overall odds of winning a prize in the game, which has drawings seven nights a week, are 1 in 8.
The mission of the Nebraska Lottery is to generate proceeds for good causes while providing quality entertainment options to Nebraskans. Over $793 million has been raised for the Nebraska Lottery’s beneficiary funds since the Lottery began in 1993. All 93 counties in Nebraska have benefited from projects funded with these Nebraska Lottery proceeds.