Posted: Thursday, January 14, 2016 1:25 pm
By Ray Lamont Staff Writer
The 493 players in the Gloucester 500 Powerball ticket pool didn’t come up big winners, but the pool organizers were still happy Thursday morning.
Lillian LoGrasso, who joined Misty Amero on the two-day Facebook and word-of-mouth blitz that spread across the city in a big way to land cuts of Wednesday night’s $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot, said an early check of the tickets show a total prize pool of between $50 and $100.
“We don’t have an exact number yet,” LoGrasso said around 9:30 a.m. “We still have to take the tickets to the store and have them checked out there.
“But the way I look at it, we had a blast, and it turned out to be just such a great community event,” LoGrasso said with a chuckle. “Misty and I are thrilled. We had so much fun with the media coverage, and it was fun just to put Gloucester on the map with such a fun and positive story.”
The numbers drawn were 08, 27, 34, 04 and 19, with a Powerball of 10, and winning tickets for the record $1.6 billion jackpot were sold in three states — California, Florida and Tennessee.
Two tickets worth $1 million each — for ticket holders who picked the five main numbers but missed the power ball — were sold in Massachusetts, at a Tedeschi’s store in East Bridgewater and at the 777 convenience store in Charlestown, according to Massachusetts Lottery officials. Powerball sales for Wednesday’s drawing in Massachusetts alone totaled $32,970,847, officials said, and Wednesday Bay State sales alone hit $17,513,035.
LoGrasso and Amero had purchased the pool’s 493 tickets — each participant was allowed just one $2 chance apiece — at the Tedeschi’s store in Gloucester, along with Christina’s Variety, Tony’s Variety and a few others.
“It was crazy. I’ve got a Powerball hangover,” LoGrasso laughed. “But even though we didn’t win, I feel we’re still rich — rich in family, rich in health and rich in community. This was about community, and it was a blast.”