{"id":192502,"date":"2015-02-24T04:00:13","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T18:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=192502"},"modified":"2015-02-24T04:00:13","modified_gmt":"2015-02-23T18:00:13","slug":"2-hit-instant-lottery-jackpot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/2-hit-instant-lottery-jackpot\/","title":{"rendered":"2 hit instant lottery jackpot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two individuals became $1,000 richer when they hit the jackpot in the Northern Marianas Sports Association\u2019s scratch card lottery fundraiser.<\/p>\n<p>Lili Borja and a man who declined to be named won back-to-back in the lottery that\u2019s only on its third week since being launched.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_192503\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-192503\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a attid=\"192503\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Lottery-pix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Lottery-pix-300x265.jpg\" alt=\"The two winning scratch cards in the Northern Marianas Sports Association\u2019s lottery fundraiser. (Jon Perez)\" width=\"300\" height=\"265\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-192503\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-192503\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The two winning scratch cards in the Northern Marianas Sports Association\u2019s lottery fundraiser. (Jon Perez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>NMSA officials and Pacific Lotteries Ltd. of Australia representative Steve Gibson confirmed both winning tickets and the winners were given their cash prizes on the same day.<\/p>\n<p>Borja, a regular shopper at New XO Market in Gualo Rai, was surprised to see three $1,000 on one of the three Lucky 7\u2019s tickets she bought yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt I was the luckiest person in the world. Surprised but I\u2019m so happy,\u201d said the Garapan resident, who rewarded the cashier and other people present with $10 each.<\/p>\n<p>The Koblerville man became the scratchies\u2019 first lucky winner on Sunday after buying 10 Hafa Adai instant lottery tickets with his friend at the Garapan Market.<\/p>\n<p>His friend was actually the one who first played, purchasing four tickets and winning $3. He got curious and thought of trying his luck.<\/p>\n<p>He was stunned and speechless after learning that he hit the $1,000 jackpot. Recovering his senses, he belted out a loud scream, surprising the storeowner and the other shoppers.<\/p>\n<p>The lucky 29-year-old man, once his win was confirmed, held hands with his friend and the storeowner and started jumping for joy and yelling for over one minute.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m going on a huge spending spree including buying the latest mobile phone. It\u2019s time to have some fun,\u201d said the man, who is finishing a business degree.<\/p>\n<p>Gibson said there are a lot more $1,000 tickets\u2014Hafa Adai, Lucky 7\u2019s, Quick Cash, and Tropical Treasure\u2014that can be found and won in the NMSA fundraiser.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are thrilled to have our first winner this fast. It\u2019s all for a good cause and lots of fun to play. It\u2019s like a treasure hunt and it\u2019s easy to be a winner,\u201d said NMSA president Michael White. \u201cNow, the question is who\u2019s going to be the next winner? I wish all the players good luck.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tickets are $1 each. Scratch card players could win $5, $20, $50, and $100 instantly, which can be redeemed from the retail outlet.<\/p>\n<p>NMASA hopes to raise funds to support its projects and maintenance of sports facilities.<\/p>\n<p>NMSA, since becoming an independent and private group in 2013, is allowed to operate a public lottery system as stated in Public Law 18-49 and as defined in Section 9301 of Title 1 of the Commonwealth Code.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two individuals became $1,000 richer when they hit the jackpot in the Northern Marianas Sports&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":192503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900,4],"tags":[775,2310,1162,2311],"class_list":["post-192502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-local-news","tag-hafa-adai","tag-lili-borja","tag-nmsa","tag-steve-gibson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}