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Another drawing, another winner

The county's luck holds as another winning lottery ticket is sold here. This time, it was for a Mega Money jackpot.

By MICHAEL KRUSE
Published October 5, 2006

SPRING HILL - This story is not a reprint.

This story is not a typo.

This story is the local story that keeps on going and keeps on giving.

Someone has won the lottery in Hernando County. Again.

The Florida Lottery announced Wednesday that two players matched all four numbers plus the Megaball in the Tuesday Mega Money drawing and will share an estimated $500,000 jackpot. One of those two people bought his or her ticket at the Kangaroo Express on Spring Hill Drive. That person, who hadn't claimed the prize as of Wednesday evening, according to lottery officials, is the second big winner in as many days in Hernando and the ninth in as many months in various lottery games.

The other winner Tuesday was from Miami.

Hernando's recent run of remarkable luck doesn't just seem weird. It is weird.

There are 67 counties in Florida. Only five of those have had more Lotto and Mega Money winners than Hernando in 2006, and all of those five are much, much larger counties. Hernando has had more lottery success than Hillsborough County, Pinellas County and Sarasota County.

"Really," lottery spokeswoman Shelisha Durden said Wednesday, "there is no explanation."

It started in late December. A woman from Spring Hill won the $1-million Cash for the Holidays New Year's Eve drawing on a ticket she bought at the 7-Eleven at State Road 50 and Wiscon Road. Turns out, that was just a preview of the year to come.

There was a winner in January, and another one in February, and then again in March. Two more in April. Then again in May.

Then, earlier this week, George Hresko, a mail handler from Hudson, won a Fantasy 5 drawing on numbers he had played at Super Star Discount Beverage on County Line Road.

Tuesday's winning Mega Money numbers were: 15-17-33-37. The Megaball was 10.

The announcement just added to the head-scratching streak.

Fantasy 5 stats were unavailable Wednesday. Based on Lotto and Mega Money winners, though, Miami-Dade County has had the most winners in 2006, with five Lotto wins and seven Mega Money wins. But that's not so surprising: More than 2.3-million people live in Miami-Dade.

The next four counties on the lottery list, in order, are Orange, Lee, Palm Beach and Broward - all more than a million strong in population except for Lee, which last year was home to 544,758 people, according to the latest census numbers.

And then there's Hernando.

Population? Just over 164,000.

"It's happened before with some cities where they've had two Fantasy 5 winners in a month or something like that," said Durden, the spokeswoman. "It ranges. It varies.

"It's randomness."

Here in Hernando, though, random is getting awfully consistent.

Michael Kruse can be reached at mkruse@sptimes.com or 352 848-1434.

[Last modified October 4, 2006, 22:33:10]