2021-07-23 16:04:04.83

Nathaniel Golden usually plays a set of his own numbers plus a Quick Pick when he purchases Powerball tickets. For the July 3 drawing, the Independence man instead bought two Quick Pick tickets, one of which won him a $50,000 prize.

Golden purchased his winning ticket at QuikTrip, 4005 S. Little Blue Parkway, in Independence. Checking his ticket after the drawing, Golden knew he had matched at least one number right away.

“I saw the numbers before I got my ticket out,” he explained. “I saw the ’24’ and I remembered that. Then I pulled the ticket out and looked at it, and the numbers were matching, one after the other.”

The winning numbers on July 3 were 26, 40, 41, 55 and 65, with a Powerball number of 24.

In all, Golden matched four of the five white-ball numbers drawn, plus the Powerball number, to win the $50,000 prize. His ticket was the second sold in Jackson County and the 27th sold in Missouri to do so this year.

In FY20, Missouri Lottery prizes for Jackson County winners amounted to more than $91.3 million, while Lottery retailers earned more than $8 million in commissions and bonuses. Educational programs in the county received more than $36.3 million in Lottery proceeds, with a detailed list of expenditures available at MOLottery.com.