When you hear about someone “winning” the Powerball lottery, you automatically think big – like, the-wealth-of-a-small-nation big. But there are many people, every single draw, that win the Powerball lottery, for amounts ranging anywhere between a couple dollars to hundreds of millions. It’s the wonderful thing about Powerball; that you could walk away with $4, or you could walk away with 1.6 billion dollars (the largest jackpot ever recorded), and you don’t really know until those numbers are drawn. And this range in prizes has never been more hilariously illustrated than in the case of the Stocklas brothers.
James and Bob Stocklas are two Pennsylvania brothers who share a passion – playing the Powerball lottery. James Stocklas, who is a judge in Pennsylvania, was finishing up a fishing trip in the Florida Keys when he got news that he’d won the Powerball lottery. It was shortly after that when he realized that his brother Bob had also won the Powerball lottery. The difference? Whereas James walked away with a cool 291 million dollars, his brother Bob left with seven dollars. Hopefully, James is the sharing type of sibling!
It’s a rare occurrence, for sure, but what it illustrates more than anything is how good the odds of winning smaller prizes are in Powerball, where even a single correct Powerball number can fetch you a prize. And that’s why a lot of people love playing Powerball – it’s not necessarily for the massive jackpot (though, of course, that’d be amazing), but for the smaller, more likely prizes. It’s no stretch of the imagination to think that Bob Stocklas is probably kicking himself for not raking in what his brother won, but if his brother hadn’t won such a gigantic amount, in all likelihood Bob would’ve been pleased as punch to walk away a winner (albeit of a modest prize).
Powerball is all about racking up those smaller prizes, amassing small victories and turning them into a nice nest egg. A jackpot should be seen as a by-product of that, a happy phenomenon that makes you rich beyond your wildest dreams. In fact, much of the thrill of playing Powerball isn’t even in the prizes at all, but in the ritual: choosing your numbers, filling out your card, crossing your fingers and watching as the number balls are revealed. You can go online and follow what numbers have been hot lately, which numbers historically show up in pairs and triplets, and make decisions based on trends and science. In other words, it’s a fun game!
The Stocklas brothers are a prime example of why Powerball is so exciting. You can walk away with 291 million dollars one week, and walk away with seven dollars the next. Either way, if you play the game long enough, there’s a good chance you’re going to win something. As for Bob Stocklas, it’s not like he’s going to stop playing Powerball – who knows, the next jackpot might go to him. Now, that would be a crazy story.
