Giving lottery tickets as Christmas presents or stocking stuffers is a pretty popular idea. So it was for a Pittsburgh pharmacist and his family who gave a $20 Pennsylvania lottery ticket as a gift to relatives this year. One paid of big, this present ended up to be $1 million.

In the neighborhood of Brookline, Medicine Shoppe owner Fred DePasquale does gain a little for the giving away of the ticket. Fred gets a $5,000 bonus from the state for selling the winning ticket.
In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, DePasquale admits to not playing the lottery a lot but thought that the special $20 tickets would make good gifts. Only 625,000 tickets were printed and there would be a drawing for 5 $1 million prizes.

Though he would not reveal the lucky couple by name the pharmacist did say they have a child and another on the way and earmark there new found wealth to paying off their mortgage.
As for regrets, DePasquale says no.

"All it was to me was a $20 ticket in my hand," he said. "That's like giving a shirt for Christmas and asking them if you could wear it New Year's Eve."


- 2008-01-03