Idaho woman has a 1 in 5 chance of winning $1 million during Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve - East Idaho News
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Idaho woman has a 1 in 5 chance of winning $1 million during Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve

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The following is a news release and photo from Idaho Lottery. Pictured above are the five finalists: Kai Nichols, New York; Rigoberto Hernandez, Tennessee; Terresa Royce Rodgers (on behalf of Cecil Royce), New Mexico; Blaine Marston, Maine; and Cathie Ritchie, Idaho.

NAMPA — A Nampa woman has a million reasons to wait for the ball to drop at midnight in New York City’s Times Square. Cathie Ritchie is one of five finalists in the running to become the “First POWERBALL Millionaire of the Year” and win a promotional prize of $1,000,000 on Jan. 1, 2020 on LIVE national television.

Country singer Jessie James Decker announced Ritchie as one of the five finalists Sunday night in New York City during a welcome reception held for all the Powerball VIP promotional winners from across the United States. As part of a national POWERBALL promotion, one of these five finalists will be randomly chosen to win $1,000,000 during ABC’s live broadcast of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2020.”

“Congratulations to Cathie Ritchie on being one of the five finalists for the First Powerball Millionaire of the Year,” said Jeff Anderson, Idaho Lottery Director. “Idaho has a long history of good luck with Powerball winners and we wish are all the best tomorrow night.”

Anderson described how Ritchie got to New York City for this New Year’s Eve. She was one of thousands of Idaho Lottery Lottery players who participated in a Powerball sweepstakes draw with Powerball Arcade. Ritchie, and other players across Idaho, entered non-winning Powerball tickets from mid-June through early October for the New Year’s Rockin’ Eve VIP trip.

Ritchie’s entry was one of 8,506 entered by Idaho VIP Club members for the opportunity to win this once in a lifetime trip to spend New Year’s Eve in New York City at Times Square and the chance to be the first millionaire of the new decade. She joins three hundred people from 25 different North American lottery jurisdictions who participate in Powerball are in New York as part of the promotion.

“I don’t ever win. I’ve never won anything in my life. Just to get here was amazing and now to be one of the five finalists is unbelievable,” said Ritchie. “If I can have half as much good luck as I’ve had bad luck, then I’ll win the million dollars for sure.”

The winning draw and announcement will be made live at about 10:15 p.m. MT during ABC’s broadcast of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2020.”

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