Lottery Ticket Scores a Tidy Wedding Anniversary Gift

In keeping with the tradition of giving a gift of “paper” to help celebrate a couple’s first wedding anniversary, Matthew Frasca of Darien decided to give his bride Alex what might be considered an unconventional gift of paper—a Powerball ticket.

When Frasca bought the Quick Pick ticket for the record-setting $580 million Powerball jackpot at Putnam Shell at 401 W. Putnam Ave. in Greenwich, he decided to opt for the power play.

The winning Powerball numbers on November 28 were 5 – 16 – 22 – 23 – 29.  Frasca matched four of the five numbers drawn, plus the Powerball number, 6.  Normally a $10,000 prize match, Frasca, who had added the Power Play feature to his ticket for an extra $1, automatically quadrupled his prize for a $40,000 win.

“I checked the website (ctlottery.org) on my phone the morning after the drawing and compared it to the ticket. We were so close! We had every number, but the last number…but winning this prize is incredible,” Frasca told lottery officials.

The Frascas arrived at CT Lottery headquarters Dec. 3 where Lottery officials presented them with their check for $27,321, the prize after taxes were deducte.  “Most of the prize will go toward a down payment for a house.  But, tonight, we’ll have a great anniversary dinner!” Frasca told Lottery officials.

In total, 148,555 winning Powerball tickets were sold statewide for the Nov. 28 drawing, with prizes ranging from $4 to $2 million.  Overall odds of winning a Powerball prize are 1 in 31.8.  The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot prize were 1 in 175,223,510.