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Lutz Man Wins $50,000 In Powerball

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By TOM BRENNAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 8, 2009

TAMPA - A Lutz man was among the winners in Florida's first Powerball lottery drawing on Wednesday.
Kevin Cohen, 22, won $50,000 for picking four of the five winning numbers.

Normally, that would only be a $10,000 payout. But Cohen chose to pay an extra dollar on a chance to have any winnings be multiplied by five.

"That was a great investment of one extra dollar," Cohen said when he picked up his earnings with his father at the Florida Lottery's Tampa district office.

Cohen was one of six Florida residents who matched four winning numbers.

No one hit all five, so the jackpot rolled over. It is worth $120 million for Saturday's drawing.

Cohen bought his ticket at Cumberland, 24050 S.R. 54.

He said he plans to use his winnings to pay bills, but he will continue to play Powerball.

"We'll be back again soon to claim the big prize," he predicted.

Players from 30 states entered the drawing, but it was the first time tickets were sold in Florida. About 7 million state residents bought tickets.

Wednesday night's numbers were 23-31-33-38-52, with 24 as the Powerball. The odds of winning aren't all that encouraging: 1 in 195,249,054.

Reporter Tom Brennan can be reached at (813) 259-7698 or tbrennan@tampatrib.com.

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