70 YEAR OLD POWERBALL WINNER DONALD DAMON BAGS $96.6 MILLION JACKPOT

Powerball Winner Donald Damon, 70, was introduced on Friday 13th as the lucky winner of the Kansas Powerball lottery at the Kansas Lottery headquarters in Topeka. The Powerball draw, held two days earlier on November 11th 2009, produced a prize of $96.6 million which is the largest Powerball jackpot won in Kansas to date.The previous biggest jackpot was won in 2000 when a syndicate of airline pilots had one of three tickets that matched the Powerball winning numbers for a $150 million jackpot. Mr Damon successfully matched all numbers in the draw: 08-12-14-22-29 with Powerball of 22.You can see whether any of Donald's life changing numbers are amongst the most and least drawn is previous draws in our Powerball numbers statistics section. 

BONUS PAYMENT

The winning Kansas Powerball lottery ticket, a lucky pick, was bought at a Dillons 51 grocery store located at 4107 10th Street in Great Bend, where Donald decided to play Powerball just a few hours before the draw. Dillons 51 will receive a $10,000 bonus from the Kansas Lottery for supplying Donald with the ticket containing the winning Powerball numbers on it.

Federal Beer received an impressive $100,000 bonus for selling Patricia Chandler her $131.5 million winning ticket in 2013.

 

 

POWERBALL WINNER DONALD DAMON ‘SHOCKED’

Mr Damon described the events that led him to realize he had matched the winning numbers from the Powerball results. “Yesterday, my daughter Karen told me that someone had won the Powerball jackpot in south central Kansas on Wednesday,” he said. “She told me that she knew she hadn’t won on her ticket, so I asked her to check my ticket”. Karen took up the story and told reporters “I said to Dad that he had matched the Powerball number and he jokingly said that he must be the winner,” said Karen.

“When we realized he did have the Powerball winning numbers, we were both so shocked.” Mr Damon and his daughter didn’t waste any time and immediately drove to the Kansas Lottery’s Great Bend office to claim the prize fund.

 

PAPERWORK

Mr Damon’s wife, Kathleen, up to this point was still in the dark about her family’s’ new found Powerball jackpot fortune. However once the paperwork was finalised at the Great Bend office, Mr Damon called her at work and told her she should come home. “I work at the Senior Centre and we were having our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday,” said Kathleen. “I wasn’t going to leave until my work was finished.” Not only does Kathleen work at the Senior Centre in Great Bend, she also has two other jobs.

"I can't believe it," she said, adding that she was having trouble getting her head around the fact that she wouldn’t have to get up at 4 a.m. on Monday and go to work. Many winners retire following a lottery win such as $71.5 million winner Kevin Carlson in 2013.

 

 

LUMP SUM PAYMENT FOR POWERBALL WINNER DONALD DAMON

Like many previous Powerball winners, Mr Damon, who was a truck driver for nearly 30 years and who retired in January, opted to take his prize fund as a lump sum cash amount. After state and local taxes he will take home close to $34 million for his Kansas Powerball lottery jackpot.Mr Damon said he has been buying lottery tickets since they were available in Kansas and the largest sum he had won previously was $250.  

PLANS

When asked about future plans for his new fortune, the Powerball winner from Kansas seemed to have that all covered. First of all plans to pay off his debts and thereafter buy a new house for him and his wife and also a new home for his daughter. He would like to help support those in need in his local community, such as families whose homes have been lost to fire, and to give money to their churches. A trip to Las Vegas is in the pipeline for his grandsons’ 21st birthday. The biggest splash out has been on some new clothes for himself and his wife. "Financially, this helped a lot," he said.

If you want to check your own numbers to see if you've won then you can do so using our Powerball results checker.