At Bucks store, $50 million jackpot jubilation

Rakesh "Rocky" Raina can't wait to congratulate the winner of the $50 million Powerball jackpot who bought the ticket Wednesday in his lower Bucks County store.

"I love my customers. They are the best customers anywhere," Raina said as his regulars congratulated and hugged him Thursday.

There was a party atmosphere in the Levittown News & Tobacco shop in the Fairless Hills Shopping Center as Raina and his customers waited for the winner to come forward.

"Rex, we thought it was you," the store owner shouted to a customer buying lottery tickets.

"If Rex had hit, we'd all be millionaires," Raina said. "Rex is a great guy."

For those who hadn't heard the news and were wondering about the TV vans in the parking lot, signs on the front door read, "Check Your Powerball $50 Mill. Sold Here," and "We Sold Powerball Winning Ticket."

In the meantime, Raina himself is a big winner, thanks to the $100,000 bonus he'll get for selling the ticket with the six winning numbers: 13, 17, 19, 27 and 38, with a Powerball of 12.

He said he would split the money with relatives, friends, employees, the local fire company, and police, and food banks. He was not sure of the amount he will clear after taxes, "but whatever I get, I'll be happy."

The Powerball winner will get a $50 million annuity, or a $33,134,526.18 cash prize, less 25 percent federal withholding.

There also were two second-place winners, in Louisiana and Virginia, with five numbers, but not the Power play number. They will each get $1 million.

It was the second Powerball jackpot in a week, but considerably less than the record-breaking $587.5 million Powerball jackpot won on Nov. 28. There were two winners of that, in Missouri and Arizona.

And it was the second Powerball jackpot hit in the area this year. In April, a group of 48 SEPTA workers bought a ticket at the Gallery in Center City that paid $107.5 million in cash.

Wednesday's winning numbers were drawn at 10:59 p.m., and a lottery official called Raina as he opened at 7 a.m. Thursday. He was told the winning ticket was bought between 12:45 and 1 p.m. Wednesday, which made him think Rex might have been the winner.

Raina, who has owned the store for nearly 19 years and lives a few blocks away on Hood Boulevard, said he sells thousands of lottery tickets daily, mostly to regulars who spend from $5 to $30 per visit, and has one of the top-selling outlets in Pennsylvania. The small store also sells cigarettes and premium cigars.

Before this week, the largest payoff from his store was $100,000 for a $5 scratch-off ticket bought on Oct. 28.

The store's good luck continued Thursday as Al Brewster, 53, of Levittown, won $1,000.

"I need it to fix up my house," the retired Pennsbury School District bus driver said.