LITTLE ROCK — A Royal woman and Grady man have won $100,000 prizes from Arkansas’ lottery as the lottery’s number of $100,000 prize winners increased to five Tuesday.
Angela Boyce of Royal and Larry Harris II of Grady claimed $100,000 prizes at the lottery’s Little Rock headquarters, said Julie Baldridge, director of public affairs and legislative relations for the lottery. They received $75,000 checks after deductions for federal taxes.
The fact that both collected on their $100,000 prizes on the same day “is just the luck of the draw,” said lottery Executive Director Ernie Passailaigue.
“The [tickets] are dispersed at random. It is a fluky thing,” he said.
The maximum prize paidout so far has been $100,000, lottery officials said.
The lottery started selling tickets Sept. 28.
Passailaigue said he expects to have a $500,000 winner soon on another lottery game based on ticket sales.
Boyce won her prize on a $5 Money Mania ticket purchased at the Royal Shell gas station and Harris won his on a $5 Cash Bonanza ticket purchased at Harding Street Valero gas station in Pine Bluff, Baldridge said.
Boyce, 32, who schedules window replacements for Windows USA and has three children, said she “screamed” after winning the prize and woke up her 3-year-old son.
“I am going to pay my van off and buy a house,” she said in an interview at lottery headquarters.
Boyce said she has probably spent $100 on lottery tickets and won $100 last week and $100,000 this week.
She said she is engaged to be married to Arthur Isaac of Royal, 39, who said he is a selfemployed meat salesman.
Harris, 19, who plans to attend the University of Arkansas at Monticello, collected his prize earlier in the day, Baldridge said.
The three other $100,000 winners were Joseph K. Pierce of Van Buren who won Oct. 13, Alex Kimbrell of Humphrey on Oct. 30 and Teresa Bates of Conway, who won the lottery’s secondchance drawing on Dec. 3 as a member of the lottery’s Play It Again Club, Baldridge said. Pierce reported to jail to serve a six-day sentence on misdemeanor indecent exposure and loitering charges shortly after he picked up his prize.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 16 on 12/30/2009