1st Time Lotto Player Wins $1 Million Powerball

Not too shabby for his first time playing the lotto. Coast Guard Academy instructor Lt. Andrew Norberg decided to buy a Quick Pick Powerball ticket, since the grand prize was so… well… grand.

The prize money peaked at $1.6 billion this week. According to the Powerball website, the estimated jackpot is now $40 million.

Norberg’s ticket had five matching numbers, according to lottery officials. The winning ticket was bought at Sully’s Mobil, 382 Vauxhall St., New London, a location that has seen no shortage of winners.

‘A Lot of Hooting and Hollering’

“I was sitting at my desk at work Thursday morning and checked the winning numbers online,” Norberg told Lottery officials. “Since I never played before, I didn’t even realize that I won a prize since I missed the Powerball number. I asked one of my coworkers what the odds were for getting just five numbers. That’s when the whole office started screaming. There was a whole lot of hooting and hollering.”

Norberg, 29, a graduate and instructor at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, arrived late Thursday, Jan. 14, at CT Lottery headquarters in Rocky Hill to claim his monumental $1,000,000 prize. Some of the prize money, said Norberg, will certainly help him and his fiancé, who is also in the Coast Guard, in the months ahead.

“We’re getting married this April,” he said. “This will go to a nice honeymoon, and our future life together.”

Sully’s owner, Patrick “P.J.” Sullivan, said he couldn’t be happier for his store’s newest winner.

‘Such a Great Start’

“The best thing about this story is that he’s 29-years-old and just starting out a new life,” he said. “It’s great for him, and such a great start. Especially being a first time player. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

For selling the winning ticket, Sully’s Mobil will receive a $2,500 check from the CT Lottery.

The overall odds of winning a Powerball prize are 1 in 24.9. The odds of winning a Powerball Match 5 prize are 1 in 11,688,054. Odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292,201,338.

Three Connecticut-bought tickets matched the first five numbers (8-27-34-4-19) but not the Powerball number (10).

Each of those winners will receive $1 million prizes. Those tickets were sold in Hartford County, New London County and Fairfield County, according to Valerie Guglielmo of the Connecticut Lottery.

Eleven tickets bought in the state matched four numbers plus the Powerball number, earning the holders $50,000 apiece. Four of those winners also had the Power Play number 2, doubling their prizes to $100,000.

(image via shutterstock)