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Illinois Lottery's founder rememberedNews Story
The man, who represented Rockford in Springfield for 28 years, has a highway and a building named after him, is also known as the founder of the Illinois Lottery.As the Illinois Lottery turns 30, Zeke Giorgi's family remembers.Over the last 30 years, the Father of the Lottery has made a lot of people millionaires. He'd always joke about it, I never hear from any of the millionaires, says Giorgi's daughter Barbara Vella.Giorgi introduced Illinois to the lottery back in 1974, and tickets have b
Sep 14, 2004, 7:48 am - Todd - Lottery News

Lottery winner too busy to spend itNews Story
A former Welsh newspaper editor who left her job after winning 8.5m (US$15.3 million) on the national lottery revealed yesterday that she hasn't spent a penny of it yet.Farmer's wife Pat Griffiths, 48, who was in charge of the Abergavenny Chronicle until her win seven months ago, said she had been too busy working on the family farm to go on a spending spree.The family bought two modest VW Golf cars out of the 300,000 interest her win has earned, but Mrs Griffiths hasn't touched her nest-egg f
Aug 24, 2004, 8:35 am - Todd - Lottery News

Cancer victim claims £20 million UK Lotto prizeNews Story
A cancer sufferer who claimed a record 20.1 million (US$37.1 million) in the UK Lotto has described the moment when she realized that she had won the jackpot.Iris Jeffrey, a 58-year-old housewife, had put her ticket in a cupboard at her Belfast home without checking to see if it matched the winning numbers drawn on July 14.But she realised she had won after seeing an appeal from the organisers Camelot for the person holding the winning ticket to claim the outstanding rollover jackpot. I wrote d
Aug 6, 2004, 8:57 am - Todd - Lottery News

Colorado Lottery gift scandal continuesNews Story
The upheaval in the Colorado lottery office over gifts just won't go away.The latest controversy involves warning letters sent to 13 lottery employees charging that they didn't, as required, report gifts given to them by vendors.Michael Cooke, director of the Colorado Department of Revenue, which oversees the state lottery, said the Colorado Bureau of Investigation cross-checked records provided by vendors regarding gifts they had given lottery employees against the gift reports employees filed
Jun 4, 2004, 7:57 am - Todd - Lottery News

House approves strict rules for Colorado LotteryNews Story
Widespread gift-taking, conflicts led to measureLegislation designed to prdvent conflicts of interest at the Colorado Lottery passed a key hurdle Monday and will likely soon land on the governor's desk.The legislation was created in the wake of deep-seated problems at the Lottery, where officials routinely accepted dinners, golf games and other gifts from vendors doing business with the agency.A key portion of the bill would add the force of law to rules adopted by Lottery officials earlier this
Apr 27, 2004, 8:08 am - Todd - Lottery News

Bill created to clean up Colorado lotteryNews Story
Concerned over an audit that found problems with the Colorado Lottery, lawmakers began work Tuesday on a bill that would require ethics training and criminal background checks of all lottery officials, including the governor's appointees. The lottery is the kind of thing we need to clean up in state government, said Sen. Ron Tupa, D-Boulder, chairman of the Legislative Audit Committee.The bill would require lottery commissioners, who are appointed by the governor, to undergo ethics training, ba
Feb 11, 2004, 6:06 am - Todd - Lottery News

Ill. couple who resuce ticket from trash claim $10.5 million prizeNews Story
The Chicago area's garbage strike was a nuisance for many, but now it smells sweet to two lottery winners who had mistakenly thrown their $10.5 million ticket in the trash.Chicago resident Ezekiel Zeek Garnett, 27, and his sister, Karen, 24, bought an Illinois Lotto ticket Oct. 4 in Niles but threw it out without checking the numbers. Their mother then heard that a ticket sold in Niles was a winner, and she checked the trash with her daughter.Thanks to the nine-day garbage strike last month, t
Nov 28, 2003, 6:23 am - Todd - Lottery News

$10.5 mil. ticket rescued from trashNews Story
It appears that stinky, pesky garbage strike in Chicago last month wasn't so bad for everyone.For one Chicago family the strike was worth $10.5 million -- thanks to a misplaced lottery ticket and the piling-up garbage.Lottery officials said they will announce today that the winners of the Oct. 4 Illinois Lotto drawing -- a brother and sister from Chicago -- almost lost their ticket when they accidentally tossed it into the trash. Lucky for them, their mother found the ticket in the garbage, stil
Nov 26, 2003, 4:26 am - Todd - Lottery News

Canadian lottery winner donates $40 million jackpot to charityNews Story
Includes audio report Unlike most big lottery winners who spend days, or even months, trying to figure out how they'll spend their newfound riches, Tom Crist needed only a moment to decide where his $40 million in winnings would go: all to charity. Top on the list would be the medical center that cared for his late wife when she developed cancer. Still, it took Crist more than six months to tell anybody including family members he'd won. The retired Calgary executive had been lunching betw
Dec 20, 2013, 9:45 am - Todd - Lottery News

Record Florida Powerball winner buys $1.175 million homeNews Story
The gold Ford Focus has disappeared from the dirt driveway. Also gone is the neighbor kid's congratulatory crayon drawing of palm trees, taped to the door of the tiny gray duplex where Gloria MacKenzie lived until she won $590.5 million, the largest single jackpot in American lottery history. Records show that MacKenzie, 84, traded her former rental unit in for a 6,322-square-foot, five-bedroom home in Glen Kernan Country Club, a gated golf course community in southeast Jacksonville. The pric
Jul 20, 2013, 7:12 am - Todd - Lottery News