Mississippi Lottery pulls in $2.5 million its first day and announces first big winner

The Mississippi Lottery Corporation (MLC) announced today first-day sales on November 25 surpassed $2.5 million translating into an anticipated return of $570,000 for the state coffers.

“We believe Mississippi has more than exceeded expectations,” said MLC President Tom Shaheen in a statement. “We knew Mississippians were ready to play the lottery. We did not foresee the level of their excitement!”

Mississippi has already had its first multi-thousand dollar winner, too.

David Bond, 65, of Wiggins woke up Monday prepared to start his Thanksgiving week like any other. He was going deer hunting.

“I wasn’t going to go hunting at first,” he said. “I went to town for supplies at the Jr Food Mart in Wiggins and bought five tickets, all Triple 7s. Then, I went hunting.”

Bond put away the tickets and continued with his day. It was not until he arrived home after hunting and sat down at the table for a cup of coffee that he began to scratch his $2 tickets.

“I knew I won,” said Bond. “I went back to the store and let the clerk run it through the machine. The first thing she told me was that I needed to sign the back of this ticket and go to Jackson.”

Bond is the first big winner for the Mississippi Lottery, which launched four scratch-off tickets yesterday. The ticket was a $2,000 winning ticket.

“I called my wife and told her I won $2,000,” he said. “She got so excited. I cannot believe this happened. It’s not the biggest win to hit; but, I think it’s cool to be the first one.”

While he did not actually have any success hunting, Bond laughed and said he’d killed a 2,000- pound buck with his winning Triple 7 ticket.