Woman Bought a Lottery Ticket Inspired by a Church Sermon, Ended Up Winning $100K

A woman has won a lottery prize and credits the church sermon for inspiring her to participate. K. Anthony from Harrell, Arkansas played Powerball on the Jackpocket lottery app and won a whopping $100,000. She said that she finds herself playing the lottery only once or maybe twice a month but she decided to play after she heard a sermon about "praising the Lord for things on the way," per a press release.

The app's system chose her number at random and five out of the six winning digits matched. The winning numbers were 39, 41, 43, 49, and 64 while the Powerball number was 4, the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery reported, via Fox Business.

Anthony told the lottery officials that she initially thought that this was a scam. "I didn’t even know I’d won," Anthony said. Once Anthony was successfully connected to the Jackpocket team members, she couldn't believe that it was real and said that she hardly got any sleep that night. "I couldn’t even sleep a wink last night," she shared with lottery officials.

She had initially won $50,000 but since she had ordered her winning ticket with the Power Play option, her prize was doubled immediately. Anthony said that she had won lotteries before but the amount had never crossed $60. She says that she plans to use the money to remodel her home and take her family on a vacation. After she's done with the two things that she has planned, she says that she will be putting the rest of the money in her savings.

Jackpocket was founded back in 2013 and gives players convenience when it comes to ordering lottery. The app is loved in Colorado, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Washington D.C., and West Virginia. Jackpocket, the app had become a pretty secure way to order and take part in 19 different state lotteries. 

Jackpocket charges a fee on deposits to cover the company’s operational costs. The fee is about 7%. There is no charge for withdrawals, as per the company.

In another story from Arkansas, two winners picked up top prizes at the Little Rock Arkansas Scholarship Lottery claim, per Fox 16. Barbara Warren claimed her $100,000 prize from playing the $5 X50 instant game. She told officials that she usually buys 10 tickets at a time for whatever game and has won $20,000 with this tactic. With her winning, she intends to do some home improvements for her son, his girlfriend, and their child who lives with her in Arkansas.

The second winner, Larry Stevens of Searcy won a $50,000 prize for playing a $20 ticket in the $50,000 Blast instant game. Stevens told officials that he had decided to use the money to pay off his car.

The Arkansas lottery has raised over  $1.3 billion in proceeds for scholarships since 2009. These scholarships awarded by the Department of Finance and Administration Office of the Arkansas Lottery are available for "non-profit, public and private, two- and four-year colleges and universities," as per their website. $720,000 in scholarships have already been awarded and $4.8 billion was awarded to players, with $406 million in retailer commissions and $175 million in state and federal taxes.