Lottery Winner's Guide: Ewa Swope on What to Do If You Strike It Rich

As the summer heat rises, so do the jackpots in the US, with the Mega Millions and Powerball prizes reaching staggering amounts. RJ Harris is joined by Ewa Swope  from the Pennsylvania Lottery, who shares the ins and outs of playing the games and the importance of responsible play.

The conversation covers the current jackpots, with the Mega Millions prize standing at $743 million and the Powerball prize at $567 million. The speaker's guest explains the pool play option, which allows groups to play together and potentially win big. They also discuss the power Play and double Play add-ons, which can increase the chances of winning even more prizes.

Swope answers questions about claiming prizes, including the time limit of one year after the drawing date to claim a prize. They also clarify the process of announcing winners, which involves verification checks by the Multi-State Lottery Association. Additionally, they discuss the rules regarding anonymity for winners in Pennsylvania, where winners' names are released to the public.

If you're interested in learning more about playing the lottery responsibly and the various ways to win, tune in to this episode to hear the guest's insights and advice.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Well, I want to welcome back to the show the
Fabulous ever swoke from the Pennsylvania Lottery.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
How a thank you r J. You're so sweet and
I love that song intro that is that is the best.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Holly's always the best at picking the right.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Tunes, you know, she is the best things in life
are free. But yeah, to win a big jackpot here
and there.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Right, well, yeah, no doubt. I do want to tell
you I've been committed. I have a I have a
Powerball and a Mega for each of the drawings. Now
I have to go get today because I bought on Monday,
so I hadn't need to get today. But I'll get
to that. So what are the actual jackpots?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, the Pennsylvania Lottery is excited, as I'm sure all
the lotteries across the US are that, you know, as
the summer is heating up, so is the jackpots. We say,
you know, so the Mega million role last night, that
drawing was last night, it's now seven hundred and forty
three million. It's sneaking up on a billion and then yeah,
and then the next drawing Friday night there and then

(01:11):
the powerball drawing is to night and that is at
five hundred and sixty seven million, so over half a
billion dollars annuity and takes one ticket to win RJ.
But we always take the opportunity to say please play
responsibly and you know, for fun and yeah, if you
went in Pennsylvania power Ball tonight, just call me tomorrow

(01:34):
and uh, we'll throw a party for you.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
It might be you are ja who you never know?

Speaker 1 (01:38):
No, no, no, I'm with you. I'm I've always been
optimistic about this and I have plans, including to give
a lot to charity and the whole thing. And that's
what we do. We dream about what we do.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Right, does give you a chance to dream, you know?
Our executive director Drew Spick always says it gives you
a chance, like for a powerball two dollars, a chance
to dream big, like what would we do? But at
the same time, you know, there are other lower tier
prizes that you can win. They're pretty nice one, you know,
a couple million here or there. So don't threw your
ticket out if you don't win the jackpot, excuse me, Well, okay,

(02:14):
numbers sign your ticket, don't you know. If you're a winner,
don't share it with anyone on social just sign it,
contact us it Lottery right away, and then after you
claim your price, you can celebrate and share your story
that way.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Okay, I have a couple of questions. You say, sign
your ticket. So everything that we have in life, me
and Bonnie Harris is ours together fifty to fifty. So
are we both are we both as a couple signing
that ticket or is one of us?

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Well, you could sign the ticket. What that means RJ
is simply the ticket is a bear document. So if
it's lost or you know, misplaced, someone else finds it
that technic and you haven't signed it. Technically it's their tickets. Yeah,
that's why we always say signing your ticket. When you
come to claim your prize, that's when you can choose
do I want to claim it as RJ. Or do

(03:07):
I want to claim it, you know, as RJ and
Holly or however you want.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
To claim it including family. We see that families win
and they bring out five people, meaning the mom and
dad and children.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
That's a good point that you bring up too. We
have pool play option on our website plottery dot com.
You can find that information. Some people play as a
group at the office. It's something fun to do or
as a friend group, and it's something some people do
for many many years to come. I remember covering the
Lucky Lee Heighten Ladies decades ago. They went on teacher

(03:39):
Appreciation Week and they were all teachers. Now they won
match six about three million. But they play as a group,
so you just never know, you never know at all.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
So you can do that if you do it online.
You can play as.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
A group online. The well, the games are available online
to purchase Mega Millions and Powerball again the Powerball drawing tonight.
The pool play information is available on our website. So
if they're like, what is poolplay? Go to pay Lottery
dot com and check it out there and uh to
your point to you can purchase tickets either at one

(04:14):
of our retailers across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or online
if it's more convenient for you. I will tell you that.
You know, if you've been at the store lately or
a lot of retailer, you do see there's a buzz
at the counter if people are buying these tickets. So
it's really good to see and it's fun.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Too, all right now power uh the power Ball tonight.
I always get power Play. I don't get the other one.
Can you explain what those are? I know if I
if I do hit like the million dollars with power Play,
I get too, right, Do I have that right?

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah? So the power Play RJ is an add on
that basically you can you know, buy for an extra buck.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
You can just buy.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Power Play and it gives you chances to win more
double your prize. Or so, if you win the jackpot
and you do power Play, it's the jackpot. Just win
the jackpot. But let's say you have matched five of
five numbers right and you win. Pardon me, it's really yeah,

(05:20):
win you win a prize of one million, Well that
doubles to two millions. So whenever I see a winner,
I do win an awareness at lottery, right, So I
talk to winners every day. It's like such a fun job,
fun part of my job. Whenever I see someone won
one million, they didn't play the power Play, I'm.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Like, yeah, yeah, no, I get that one run a million?

Speaker 2 (05:43):
What is that?

Speaker 1 (05:44):
What is the other option? Though? There is another dollar option?

Speaker 2 (05:49):
There is a double Oh that's right, you're right, the
double play add on. So for tonight there is a
separate drawing too. In regards to power Play, it's called
double play and you just for a dollar you pick
that and it gives you a chance to win a
new set of prizes using the same numbers selected for
power Ball. So all those prizes in the big prize

(06:11):
charts are on our website Plottery dot com. But just
for an example, if you match five of five on
double play, you get ten million top one. So there's
many chances to win to your point, RJ. If you play,
so definitely pay attention go to our website if you're
not you know, educated on it, because I know when
I was a reporter, I did not know there were

(06:32):
so many ways to win with the lottery when I
covered the lottery. So now that i'm you know, been
here seven years, I'm like, well, there's there's many ways
to win and play and win.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
I have one really silly question. But you always hear
about somebody, you know, this person hasn't claimed it yet.
They won, but they haven't claimed to haven't claimed it?
And how long do you have to claim if you
win the Mega.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
So for draw games, holl a great question. For draw games,
it's one year after the drawing date, so that's Mega millions,
Treasure Hunt, cash five power you know, Powerball, things of
that nature. It's one year from the from the date
of the drawing.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
M That sounds good. Okay. Two questions before I let
you go. Number one, when do you announced? Let's say
I called you tomorrow and I say, you're never you never,
You're never going to believe it. But I won, right,
But nobody's gonna know until you present the check. Is
that right?

Speaker 2 (07:30):
Sure? So the Multi State Lottery Association will probably announce that.
You know, are we are we speaking into existance? I
don't know that. Let's just say Pennsylvania had a winner,
but our security team does verification checks at lottery, so
we have to wait for their green light to say, yes,
you can announce this winner, winning ticket, and when we

(07:52):
announce it. Of course, with Powerball, if someone won in Pennsylvania,
we would know the location where the winning ticket was sold.
How much you know, obviously, but we wouldn't know if
there was a winner unless somebody called us and said, hey,
it's our j I have the winning numbers, you know,
so we would announce after security verification where you know,
we our security team is great, they work really fast.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
So what our when I say announced In other words,
I'm concerned I win tomorrow, you know, and it's verified
that I win tomorrow, but the public doesn't know until
you give me the check. In other words, I have
time to get my life in order.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Sure, Okay, Well, the the the rules are, or the
law says in Pennsylvania that winners can't remain anonymous, right
r So if I if you're if you claim the
ticket and you are in the system, as you know, RJ,
winning the prize, we do have to tell reporters first
and last name of winners in the state of Pennsylvania,
but only that information, like we don't release any phone

(08:53):
numbers or addresses or anything like that. But that's that's
the law and PA. Now we tell all the winners
that that's law, and you know, that's that's the way
it's done. But we do, yeah, we do ask the
winner if they're you know, interested in an event with
us a party, or to share their story, or if
they just want to give us a statement on how

(09:16):
hap happy they are winning six million, like what are
they going to do?

Speaker 3 (09:20):
You know?

Speaker 2 (09:21):
And if they don't want to share their story, that's
okay too, all right, we.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
Got to run, but I want to tell you we're
going to do it right here on the air, and
I'm going to give some money to Bill and Holly
and they already know that, and then I'm leaving. I'm
leaving after that for my new Hawaiian island. Okay, so
oh nice?

Speaker 2 (09:38):
I love it. A good luck everybody, all.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Right, Eva, thanks for being on today. Take care, We'll
talk to you soon.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Bye. Let's have a swell from the lottery six forty
six