Consistency pays off for lottery winner
CARMICHAELS – Bonny Martinez is a shining example of why consistency pays off. The 42-year-old Carmichaels woman has been playing the same Pennsylvania Lottery numbers for five years, and her patience with those numbers led her to a $469,756.50 prize.
On Oct. 5, Martinez went to the Medicine Mine on Route 88, where she often stops to play the Pennsylvania Lottery. She played the Power Ball, and on a whim asked for a Cash 5 ticket.
While the multimillion-dollar Power Ball ticket didn’t contain her winning combination of numbers, she did get all five of numbers in Cash 5 and was the only Pennsylvanian to do it that day.
District Lottery Representative Karen Bogucki presented Martinez with her check Tuesday at the Medicine Mine, where Martinez and her Chihuahua, “Pebbles,” happily accepted it.
Martinez said she has modest plans for the money, which will come to her less a 27 percent federal tax: paying off bills and investing it.
“It’s hard to come by, so I don’t want to spend it all,” she said.
Cherie Angelini, who owns the Medicine Mine with the husband, David, said that she was happy to have Martinez’s winning ticket come from her store.
“She’s a very good customer,” said Angelini, who has kept a lottery machine at her business for the past nine years.
Although Martinez said she favors the scratch-off lottery tickets, she said she uses numbers that mean something to her when she plays games like Cash 5 and Power Ball. The numbers in her winning card included birthdays for her godchild and daughter.
As she watched the numbers being drawn, Martinez said she first thought she had four of the five needed to win. That in itself, she said, would have meant a $300 payoff that would have been nice.
But when she looked closer, Martinez realized that she indeed had all five numbers.
“My chest got really tight and I was in shock,” she said.
Still in disbelief, Martinez got on the state’s Internet site to verify the numbers again. And she saw that the state said there was only one winner.
Still not sure if she was that one winner, Martinez said she did some more checking.
“I called everywhere to verify it.”
Even her husband didn’t believe her, Martinez said. Thomas, a truck driver, was on the road at the time she won. But when he saw the validated ticket, Martinez said her husband was convinced.
Martinez joined two other recent Cash 5 winners from Point Marion and Lemont Furnace in agreeing to a public check presentation. Bogucki said there are many local winners of various Pennsylvania Lottery games, but it’s up to the winners to decide if they want a public check presentation. She said they can also have the check mailed to them or they can pick it up in person.
A Carmichaels resident herself, Bogucki said she was especially thrilled to present the check to Martinez.
In the Cash 5 game, players selected five numbers from 1 to 39 and must match all of them to win the jackpot.
The lottery also pays off for matching two, three and four numbers.
Proceeds from the Pennsylvania Lottery benefit senior citizens.