Arkansas Scholarship Lottery Powerball provides large payout for two state residents

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A Mammoth Spring woman and a Fayetteville man both won sizeable Powerball prizes in July.

According to Arkansas Scholarship Lottery officials, Charlotte Bridges of Mammoth Spring won $100,008 on a Powerball ticket she purchased in a Salem supermarket in the July 19 drawing.

Bridges’ ticket matched four of the five white balls and the Powerball to win $50,000. Because she had purchased a Power Play option the prize doubled to $100,000, and an extra play on the ticket won her $8 with a Powerball match.

Bridges told lottery officials she played the numbers of her birth date.

“My boyfriend never plays the lottery but always suggests that I select the numbers of our birthdates, which led to the $100,000 win. I played a different set of numbers on the second play,” she said.

She told officials she had not made up her mind as to how she was going to spend her winnings.

John Brosseau of Fayetteville told a similar story of a $50,000 win. Brosseau had purchased a ticket for the July 17 drawing that matched four white balls and the Powerball.

Once again, birthdays were a factor.

“My wife and I always play our grandchildren’s ages,” Brosseau told lottery officials. “We needed one more number, so we selected the age of our youngest son.”

Brousseau said he plans to put his lottery prize toward a new family home.

The next Powerball drawing is Wednesday night for a $41 million jackpot. Mega Millions is set for Friday with an estimated near-record $910 million top prize.

Since 2009 the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery officials said it had raised $1.2 billion in scholarship proceeds, which have been distributed across 720,000 scholarships.