A forgotten play slip, a stubborn husband and birthday numbers helped create some of New Jersey’s most unusual Powerball winner stories
TRENTON, NJ — A piece of paper sat untouched on a dresser for six months after a New Jersey lottery player dreamed of winning big and wrote down a set of numbers that seemed impossible to forget. The dream came and went. The numbers lost. The play slip was abandoned. Then one day it resurfaced — and the same numbers produced a $1 million Powerball prize.
That story is now one of several unusual accounts emerging from New Jersey’s April 29 Powerball drawing, which created 18 second-tier millionaires and generated a collection of winner stories involving dreams, family disagreements, birthday traditions and long-held financial goals.
The New Jersey Lottery on Monday highlighted four winners who have already claimed prizes from the drawing, each arriving with a different explanation for how their winning numbers ended up on a ticket.
For one player, the winning combination came from a birthday tradition. The winner said the numbers were tied to a personal date that had remained part of their lottery routine for years. The resulting $1 million prize is expected to help pay off a home and provide support for family members.
Another winner spent years defending a set of numbers that others thought should have been retired.
According to the winner, his wife repeatedly suggested choosing new numbers after years without a major payoff. He declined. The same combination eventually delivered a $2 million Power Play prize.
The winner said the money will help accelerate retirement plans for the couple.
A separate winner had a different goal in mind.
For years, homeownership remained out of reach because of rising costs and financial hurdles. After matching the winning numbers, the player said the prospect of purchasing a home suddenly became possible.
The April 29 drawing produced a split Powerball jackpot worth $143.4 million, shared by winning tickets in Kansas and Indiana. While the jackpot winners grabbed national attention, New Jersey quietly recorded one of the largest concentrations of second-tier winners in the country.
Lottery officials said 18 New Jersey tickets matched the five white balls, including four $2 million winners and 14 $1 million winners.
New Jersey Lottery Executive Director James A. Carey said the stories attached to the winning tickets have become one of the most memorable parts of the drawing.
Rather than sharing a common strategy, the winners arrived with entirely different paths to the same outcome — a dream recalled months later, numbers defended for years, birthdays that became traditions and goals that suddenly moved within reach.
Key Points
- A winner claimed a $1 million prize after replaying numbers first seen in a dream six months earlier
- Another player won $2 million after refusing to abandon a long-running set of lottery numbers
- The April 29 Powerball drawing created 18 second-tier millionaires across New Jersey