2006 Press Releases

Brother-in-Law Birthday Error Yields a $10,000 POWERBALL® Prize for Two Sisters. Jackpot now up to $157 million

Dover, DE -- Two lucky Maryland sisters recently came forward to claim a $10,000 POWERBALL prize won during the August 19 drawing. The lucky ticket was purchased at the Royal Farms in Fenwick Island and was the result of a fortuitous mistake.

Every week the sisters, Kelly Bacon, 39 of Gambrills, Md., and Robin Casalaspro, 52 of Ocean City, Md., split the cost of 10 tickets with the agreement that they would split any winnings. This week Mrs. Casalaspro made the short trip into Delaware to purchase the tickets and, while selecting her numbers, she accidentally entered the number 29 instead of 27 for her brother-in-law's birth date. Of course, the 29 ball came up and the two took home the cash.

"He said he should probably change his birthday now," Mrs. Casalaspro joked.

She added that when she checked her numbers on www.delottery.com, she couldn't believe she had won.

"I checked them. I checked them again," she said. "Then I checked a different website. I really couldn't believe it. So I called my sister and it was even more difficult to convince her that we'd won."

Mrs. Casalaspro, who is a mother of two and has six grandchildren, said she plans to take her family to Hershey Park and put much of the rest toward a vacation to Key West, Fla. Mrs. Bacon said she will use her share on a trip to Disney World with her husband and young son.

To check your potentially winning number, call the Delaware Lottery hotline at 1-800-338-6200 or visit www.delottery.com.

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call the Delaware Gambling Helpline at 1-888-850-8888.

Since the start of operations in 1975, the Delaware Lottery has contributed more than $2.3 billion to the state's General Fund to help finance needed state services that benefit everyone in Delaware. The Lottery offers a variety of games: POWERBALL®, MULTI-WIN LOTTO, PLAY 3, PLAY 4, and assorted Instant Games.