Hudson County Powerball Player Is Among Several $2M Winners, Thanks To Lottery Quirk

HUDSON COUNTY, NJ — A lottery player who bought a ticket in Union City this week is one of 18 newly minted New Jersey millionaires, thanks to a little coincidence.

Eighteen New Jersey lottery players won either $2 million or $1 million in the Powerball drawing on Wednesday, the NJ Lottery said.

While winners who bought tickets in Kansas and Indiana split the $143.4 million jackpot, 14 New Jersey residents won $1 million and four won $2 million.

According to the Multi-State Lottery Association, which operates Powerball, 91 players nationwide won $1 million or more in this drawing.

Why So Many?

Why were there so many winners?

"The unusually high number of winners appears to have resulted from many players selecting their numbers from a single vertical column on their play slips, a pattern that exists across multiple state lottery play slips," noted the NJ Lottery.

The numbers on that play slip just happened to match the winning numbers.

The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292 million.

The winning numbers were 03, 19, 35, 51, and 67. The Powerball was 15, and the multiplier was 02.

The winning Union City ticket was sold at Primo Deli and Grocery, 2600 Summit Ave.

Numerous winning lottery tickets have been sold in Union City over the last year, particularly on Bergenline Avenue. Read more about that here: 4 NJ Lottery Winners Bought Tickets On Same Lucky Hudson County Street

Read more about Wednesday's drawing here.

Patch Editor Eric Kiefer contributed to this report.