A lottery customer purchases lottery tickets at Conjelko's Dairy Store in Windber, Pa., as the Mega Millions grew to $750 million and the PowerBall to $ 640 Million on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021. (Todd Berkey/The Tribune-Democrat via AP)
Someone hit it very big in a hard-luck Appalachian coal-mining community, where a jackpot-winning Powerball ticket worth $731 million was sold this week.
The Maryland Lottery says the fifth-largest lottery prize in U.S. history was won by someone who bought a ticket at Coney Market in Lonaconing.
That's in a remote corner of Maryland where jobs are few and poverty runs deep.
Maryland is a state that allows lottery winners to remain anonymous.
Shop owner Richard Ravenscroft told The Associated Press he hopes whoever won it will use it wisely and enable others to benefit as well.