Pinellas County Man Discovers He Wins Half of $15 Million FLORIDA LOTTO Jackpot At Breakfast!

Business Wire, July 17, 2002

News Editors

"When I saw that I had

all six of the numbers,

I nearly had a heart

attack! I was in disbelief."

MARK ROBERTS

FLORIDA LOTTO Jackpot Winner

A longtime Seminole (Pinellas County) FLORIDA LOTTO player, who finally matched his numbers from using a Quick Pick ticket, today claimed half of the estimated $15 million jackpot from the Saturday, July 6, 2002 LOTTO drawing. The other half of the LOTTO jackpot was also claimed today by Manuel Messina, 70, of New Port Richey.

Mark Roberts, 42, accompanied by his wife Vicky, 41, and daughter Sara, traveled to Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee today to redeem his winning ticket. Mark chose to receive his winnings in 30 annual installments of approximately $256,000 per year.(1) Higher-than-expected sales actually increased the LOTTO jackpot payment to $15,540,000.

"After I stopped at the store to get some gas, I was in a hurry, so at the last minute I bought $5 worth of LOTTO Quick Pick tickets," said Mark, who is a self-employed businessman. "I normally buy just $3 worth of tickets, but since the jackpot was at $15 million, I decided to buy $5. I'm glad I did now!"

Mark purchased his lucky ticket at the 7-Eleven store, located at 7612 Starkey Road in Seminole. The 7-Eleven Corporation has received a $5,000 bonus for selling one of the winning jackpot tickets for that drawing. The winning numbers, chosen by the Lottery's Quick Pick system for the Saturday, July 6, 2002 drawing are: 03 - 08 - 21 - 37 - 41 - 52.

"I was having coffee and breakfast on my back porch the Sunday morning after the drawing when I saw the winning LOTTO numbers in our newspaper," Mark said. "When I saw that I had all six of the numbers, I nearly had a heart attack! I was in disbelief."

Mark said Vicky, who works as a nurse, then looked at his winning LOTTO numbers, and she couldn't believe it either. "We wanted to see the numbers on TV, but it was too early in the day, so we drove to a couple of Lottery retailers and got a printout of the winning LOTTO numbers," Vicky said. "After that, we realized we had really won!"

The Roberts family said they plan to use some of their winnings for investments, to start a college fund for their daughter and to buy a personal computer for home. They also plan to buy Sara a new Jeep Cherokee for her to drive to school.

"We didn't tell Sara until Thursday after the drawing that we had won because we were busy making financial plans for our money," Vicky said. "One of the first things she asked us was `Can I buy the Jeep now that I've been wanting since I got my driver's license?'"

Both Mark and Vicky said they plan to continue to work at their jobs and will keep playing Florida Lottery games.

Mark is the 53rd FLORIDA LOTTO winner either to reside in or purchase a winning ticket in Pinellas County and the 689th LOTTO winner to win at least $1 million since 1988.

The jackpot for tonight's (Wednesday) FLORIDA LOTTO drawing is estimated at $3 million! The drawing will be broadcast live on 13 television stations statewide at 11 p.m. EDT.

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(1) Prize estimate based on current interest rates on day of prize

claim.