On Monday (Feb. 22) morning, the owners of Rambo’s Longhorn Liquors in Estes Park, Matt and Cristie Rambeau received an email from their Lottery representative informing them of the possibility of a winning Powerball ticket having been sold in their store. A little over an hour later the representative called back to confirm that a $500,000 winner had been sold by store.
“It’s exciting for Estes Park as a whole,” said Christie.
The Colorado Lottery confirmed the winner via their social media account at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, but official confirmation wouldn’t come to the Rambeaus until later that evening.
“Woohoo! Exciting to see a half-million dollar winner in Estes Park,” said the Colorado Lottery on their official Twitter account.
The identity of the person is being kept a secret for obvious reasons, but many are still curious if the winner is a local or just a lucky tourist.
“We don’t know who it is,” said Christie. “It would be incredible if it was a local but we’re happy for whomever it was that won. Its half a million dollars that they won, I mean, that is exciting.”
With so much secrecy surrounding the winning ticket and the winning ticket holder, it is hard to know when the ticket was purchased, but many believe it was in the last month if not more recent.
“There is a thing going around on social media that we would somehow collect $25,000 but I can’t confirm that,” said Christie. “We weren’t even aware of the possibility until late last night when we saw it on Facebook, but I don’t know anything about that and there is no verification on that part yet. We called our representative and he said he wasn’t sure but would try to confirm and get back to us.”
There has been some misinformation floating around, some that this reporter is also responsible for, regarding a percentage of the winnings being paid to the retailer. A misinterpretation of the Colorado Lottery rules caused the Trail-Gazette to report earlier in the day, that the Rambeaus would be receiving six percent, or $30,000, of the winning ticket.
That is not accurate.
Communications Manager for the Colorado Lottery, Meghan Dougherty, has confirmed that retailers do not benefit at all from the sale of a winning ticket but rather from the sale of each ticket, win or lose.
“The retailer does not make any money on the win,” said Dougherty. “I’m not sure where the five percent or $25,000 came from, but the Lottery would not have posted that on our account. Retailers make six percent on the sale of every ticket, and one percent of every winning ticket they process, $599 or less.”
That information about the six percent came from information published by the Colorado Lottery (https://static.coloradolottery.com/media/filer_public/a4/2b/a42b8607-65a1-4272-bb9a-a8c320b353a4/retailer-info__update_2018.pdf), in which the amount the retailer receives is detailed.
“Retailers earn seven percent commission on Scratch games and six percent on Jackpot games. Commissions for Scratch games are deducted from the retail value of the pack of tickets when billing occurs, while commissions for Jackpot games (Powerball, Mega Millions, Lucky for Life, Lotto, Cash 5 and Pick 3) are deducted from weekly billing for Jackpot games sold,” says the Colorado Lottery publication. “Selling bonuses for eligible Scratch games are paid upon winning ticket validation at the Lottery office and Jackpot game cashing bonuses are paid the Thursday following the sale of the bonus eligible prize.”
It seems the confusion comes from the interpretation of the word ‘Commission.’ That 5-6 percent commission comes from winning tickets of under $600, that are paid out by the the retailer. They are later reimbursed for the winnings they cashed out, but also receive the commission.
Commission on selling tickets is one percent, meaning the retailer gets $0.01 for each $1.00 ticket sold.
For Powerball winnings, any claim of over $600 requires a fairly involved process to receive the money.
“You must claim at a Colorado Lottery Claim Center in person or you can mail your completed Colorado Lottery Prize Claim Form and signed winning ticket to Colorado Lottery, PO BOX 7, Pueblo, CO 81002,” says the official rules. “Please allow one to two weeks for processing, and a check will be mailed to you. Incomplete forms may result in a delay.”
