SACRAMENTO – California Lottery officials were astounded to learn that two winning Lottery tickets were purchased from the same retailer for the November 7 MEGA Millions® draw. Even more remarkable: the two tickets were purchased by the same person. California Lottery officials do not believe this has happened before.
Ennis Pool, a 62-year-old father of two boys, matched five of six winning MEGA Millions® numbers twice. He used a unique method for selecting the numbers.
It was inspired by the Texas Western University 1966 NCAA basketball title that became the 2006 blockbuster movie “Glory Road”. The movie honors the first NCAA title won by an all African-American basketball team.
Pool, who remembers the game well, explained how the historic game fit into his number selection. “Each number [on the MEGA Millions ticket] was a number on the jersey of the five starting players in the championship game,” Pool explained. “Being from West Texas, this is a reminder to me of what happened that day.”
Pool, who is retired and enjoys volunteering with the Greater Valley Recreation District, hopes to use the prize money to remodel his home and will receive $168,270 for each winning ticket, a total of $336,540.
The ticket was purchased at the Calco Gas Mart at 200 Marine Street in Vallejo. The winning numbers were 14, 24, 32, 43, 44, and the Mega number was 21.
More than 95 cents of every Lottery dollar is returned to the community in the form of contributions to education, prizes and retail commissions. The California Lottery contributes at least 34 cents of every dollar that players spend on Lottery products to public education and returns more than 50 percent of sales to players in the form of prizes. Since its inception in 1985, the Lottery has contributed nearly $21 billion to California schools out of total sales of more than $56 billion. Retailers benefit too, earning $3.6 billion in compensation since 1985.