Powerball Couple Reflects on Winnings

May 19, 2004 — -- Winning the largest jackpot in the history of the Pennsylvania lottery has made Steven and Kristine White multimillionaires — but it almost didn't happen.

The Skillman, N.J., couple bought the only winning ticket for the May 8 Powerball lottery drawing. It was the largest jackpot in the 32-year history of the lottery — a one-time payment of $110,230,721, minus 25 percent federal tax withholding.

Since their home state does not participate in the Powerball lottery, the Whites said they buy the tickets infrequently and only when the jackpot is exceptionally large. Steven White, a 40-year-old vice president of a small New Jersey meatcompany, said he took an alternate route that brought them to the store in Bucks County, Pa., where they purchased the winning Powerball ticket.

"We'd never been here before in our lives," he told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "We normally go to a store in New Hope [Pennsylvania], but the bridge is under construction and it's closed during the week. So we said let's go down here, and we saw this store and this is where we ended up."

‘Something Had to Be Wrong With the Ticket’

Reportedly, Steven White had originally planned to buy tickets only for thedrawing on Wednesday, May 5, but was inspired to expand his betwhen the customer in front of him bought $3 in tickets for both theMay 5 and the May 8 drawings.

The Whites didn't immediately check the tickets for the Saturday night drawing. They didn't realize their good fortune until Monday, May 10, after Mrs. White, a nurse, learned from a co-worker that the winning ticket had been bought at a Cumberland Farms store in Bucks County. They were so stunned that they repeatedly checked their ticket.

"We just kept looking at the numbers backwards and forwards," Kristine White said. "And then singly, and my son would check it and would give it back to my husband. We checked it through the night because we figured something had to be wrong with the ticket."