$232 million lottery ticket sold in aptly named S.D. town

By PAUL WALSH, Star Tribune

Last update: May 28, 2009 - 8:27 PM

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Only in Winner.

Some lucky (as yet unidentified) person bought a Powerball ticket worth $232.1 million in the south-central South Dakota town of Winner.

"How often does something like this happen -- a winner in Winner, S.D.?" Norm Lingle, executive director of the South Dakota Lottery, said at a news conference on Thursday in Pierre.

The ninth-largest jackpot in Powerball's history was rung up when Wednesday night's drawing yielded numbers 5, 6, 12, 16 and 21. The Powerball was 7.

The official website for the city of Winner says that the seat of Tripp County got its name because it was the "winner" in the struggle to establish a town along the railroad right-of-way when the Chicago North Western began moving west from Dallas, S.D., in 1909. Winner is about 190 miles west of Sioux Falls.

The store that sold the ticket gets $50,000. Two retailers sell Powerball tickets in the town of about 3,000 people: the Ampride and Lil' Feller convenience stores.

Ampride clerk Diane Harmacek only knows one thing about Winner's winner: "It wasn't one of us at work."

Otherwise, she said, "The phone has been ringing like crazy."

A few blocks down the street at the Lil' Feller, owner Brian Schaeffer said, "We don't know who, and we don't know if we sold it." Schaeffer, who has owned the store for 26 years, said he's hoping the winner "was someone here locally, rather than somebody passing through."

The jackpot winner has 180 days to claim the prize and can choose either the $232.1 million in 30 graduated payments as a 29-year annuity or take a one-time cash payment of $118,005,530.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482