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Wicca Teacher Credits Deal With Gods For Lottery Win

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By TODD HALLIDY, The Associated Press

Published: September 3, 2007

NOTTINGHAM, Md. - Elwood 'Bunky' Bartlett says a New Age bookstore made it possible for him to become an overnight multimillionaire.

He and his wife, Denise, were on their way to the shop where he occasionally teaches Wicca and Reiki (RAY'kee) healing when they stopped at a liquor store and bought two $5 Mega Millions tickets for Friday night's estimated $330 million jackpot. On Sunday, he said one ticket was a winner.

'If it wasn't for this place, I wouldn't have won the lottery,' Bartlett said Sunday at the New Age shop, Mystickal Voyage.

Four winning tickets to the Mega Millions jackpot were sold in Maryland, New Jersey, Texas and Virginia. Lottery officials said Sunday that they cannot confirm the validity of Bartlett's ticket before they meet with him Tuesday.

'There's no reason to believe it's not legitimate, but it has to go through security,' said Maryland State Lottery Director Buddy Roogow, who said he has spoken with Bartlett.

Bartlett, an accountant from Dundalk, said he made a bargain with the multiple gods associated with his Wiccan beliefs: 'You let me win the lottery, and I'll teach.' Both tickets he purchased had numbers chosen randomly from the computer.

Bartlett had not decided whether he will accept his winnings as an annuity or a lump sum. The jackpot could get larger once ticket sales are tallied, Roogow said, but a lump sum payment would be at least $48.7 million, or about $32 million after taxes.

According to preliminary calculations, each ticket would be worth about $82 million if the prize were taken in 26 annual payments.

Bartlett said the money won't change him, although he plans to invest in Mystickal Voyage. 'I'm going to live my life like I have been,' he said.

The odds that any ticket would match all the numbers - 8, 18, 22, 40, 44 and the Mega Ball number of 11 - were 1 in 176 million.

If jackpot estimates hold true, it would be the fourth-largest in the lottery's history.
Mega Millions tickets are also sold in California, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Ohio and Washington.

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