New Jersey Lottery Acting Executive Director James A. Carey announced Stanley M. McKelvin as the winner of the Monday, Feb. 25th Pick-6 $4,500,000 Jackpot.
Mr. McKelvin had the only jackpot winning ticket for the February 25th drawing, making him New Jersey Lottery's newest Pick-6 "MULTI" millionaire of 2019. He has elected to take the cash option with a payout of $3.22 million.
Stanley is a regular player of lottery draw games. Though he always likes to have his tickets so he has his chance in the games, he hadn't played in the days leading up to the drawing. So, on Monday morning, he decided to purchase some tickets just to be sure to get in the game.
While working the next day he stopped at the retailer location where he had bought his tickets and saw that the winning ticket for the Pick-6 jackpot drawing had been sold there. The retailer scanned his ticket and told him the message said to file a claim – they both realized Stanley had won the jackpot. "I don't want to sound cliché, but they say all you need is a dollar and a dream, and it's true," Stanley said, adding "I don't think it's hit me yet." He called his dad when he realized he won and then his brother. "The tone of his voice, I could tell he won," Stanley's brother said. "I cried tears of joy," Stanley added.
"Congratulations to Stanley on winning this first Pick-6 jackpot prize of 2019. In addition to the Stanley's big win, retailers across New Jersey won big, too. We have more than 7,000 retailers throughout our state, and this Pick-6 run has generated more than $542 thousand in commissions and bonuses for those retailers," Carey said.
The $4.5 million jackpot is the second New Jersey Pick-6 jackpot claimed this year. Judith, Kenny and Sarah Smith, the winners of the Monday, December 17, 2018 Pick-6 Jackpot, filed their claim in January 2019, making them the first Pick-6 multi-millionaires of 2019.
Additionally, in this Pick-6 game-roll, almost 360 thousand lottery players won more than $2.2 million in prizes and better than $4.3 million was generated in contributions to the State.
For selling the winning Pick-6 jackpot ticket from the February 25, 2019 drawing, Buy Rite Liquors, 220 Harrison Avenue in Kearney received a $10,000 bonus.