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It's always heartwarming to see people win life-changing amounts of money from the lottery. While most winners take home thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars, there have been some high-profile jackpots in U.S. history. We're talking huge Powerball or Mega Millions tickets worth hundreds of millions of dollars, sometimes billions.
Jackpocket got curious and found out who scored the fattest lottery prize in every state. Writers say the list "counts the biggest prizes won on a single ticket (no sharing!) in each state."
The biggest lottery prize in Colorado's history is a Powerball ticket worth $133 million!
The lucky winner was 67-year-old Judy Finchum, a mother who lives in Grand Junction. What makes her September 2017 win amazing is that she's been playing the same numbers for 30 years, which are made up of birthday numbers from various relatives. She learned she won the morning of her dog Tillie's birthday.
"We stumbled down the hallway together and I said, 'Now look at these numbers and look at the numbers on the ticket and are those the same?'" Finchum told reporters, per ABC News. "My husband was Mr. Calm and says, 'Yes they are.'"
Finchum purchased her winning ticket from Lucky Me on Patterson Road in Grand Junction. She decided to take home a lump-sum cash payment of $84,607,397 after taxes.
Check out Jackpocket's full list of historic lottery winners on their website.