BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A Mississippi man is Louisiana’s first $1 million Powerball prize winner of 2015.
Louisiana Lottery officials say 42-year-old Derick “Pete” Blakeney, of Laurel, claimed the prize from the Jan. 14 drawing. His Quick Pick ticket matched all five white-ball numbers, but missed the red Powerball number. The numbers drawn were: 2, 4, 10, 41, 53 and 22.
Blakeney said he bought the ticket at Riverside Travel Center in Pearl River on his way home from New Orleans. The store will get a one-time selling bonus of $10,000 or 1 percent of the prize.
Blakeney received $700,000 after federal and state taxes were withheld. He said he has no immediate plans for the money, but he joked his wife researched beachfront property during their three-hour drive to the lottery’s headquarters.
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