3 Powerball Lottery Players In Bergen County Are Now Millionaires

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — Three people who played Powerball in Bergen County on Wednesday are much wealthier now, thanks to a little coincidence.

Eighteen New Jersey lottery players won either $2 million or $1 million in the Powerball drawing this week.

While winners who bought tickets in Kansas and Indiana split the $143.4 million jackpot, 14 New Jersey residents won $1 million and four won $2 million.

A player who bought a ticket in River Vale won $2 million on Wednesday, according to the NJ Lottery.

Players who bought tickets in Teaneck and Hasbrouck Heights won $1 million each.

According to the Multi-State Lottery Association, which operates Powerball, 91 players nationwide won $1 million or more in this drawing.

Why So Many Winners?

Why were there so many winners?

"The unusually high number of winners appears to have resulted from many players selecting their numbers from a single vertical column on their play slips, a pattern that exists across multiple state lottery play slips," noted the NJ Lottery.

The columns on that play slip just happened to match the winning numbers.

The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292 million.

The winning numbers were 03, 19, 35, 51, and 67. The Powerball was 15, and the multiplier was 02.

Here are the stores that sold the winning tickets this week:

• River Vale: Convenience Food Stop, 184 River Vale Road ($2 million)
• Hasbrouck Heights: Exxon, 24 Route 17 North ($1 million)
• Teaneck: 7-Eleven, 107 Cedar Lane ($1 million)

Read more about the drawing here.

Patch Editor Eric Kiefer contributed to this report.