A Sweet Home man walked away with $50,000 from Powerball: The Game Show in October.
Shawn Severns of Sweet Home placed first on the program that aired on Dec. 30.
Contestants for the show come from each of 10 states in the multi-state lottery through the scratch-off version of the game. Powerball scratch-off players can scratch off the Powerball at the bottom of the ticket it the ticket is a loser. Lottery players can send the tickets in to the Oregon Lottery office if they say entry under the Powerball. Those tickets are used in a random drawing. The person whose name is drawn then can compete in the TV program.
Severns was bored one day so he rounded up old tickets and sent five to Salem in August. He guesses that he purchased the tickets at Speedee Mart, where he buys his tickets in Sweet Home, though it’s possible he bought them in Albany where he works.
“I had a feeling because I had never sent any of the second-chance tickets before,” Severns said.
Smiling he added that his wife had chewed him out for using the last of the stamps to send those tickets off.
He was notified that his name was drawn, and he headed for Los Angeles at the end of October to compete in the TV show.
The Lottery flew Severns and his wife, Firiel, to California and put them up in the Universal Hilton over three days and two nights, most of which was taken up with a busy taping schedule.
During the game, 10 contestants compete in three games collecting “miles” by taking risks and staying in the games. They start with a small random number of miles.
The game looks like it’s fairly random, Severns, said, but during taping, “when I did it, they made it to where you had to strategize a little bit.”
In preparation, “I read the rules over and over,” Severns said. “And I watched the show just to figure it out.”
It’s mostly luck, but players can decrease the odds of losing, he said.
In the first game, Powerball Express, contestants gather points by staying in the game. Several balls are mixed, and one is drawn. If it is the ball marked with an “X,” the danger ball, all of the contestants lose their points for that game.
Severns stayed in too long.
“I really thought about quitting,” he said. “I just stayed.”
The danger ball came up. By the end of the first round, Severns was in ninth place.
“I thought we were all done,” Mrs. Severns said.
Being in ninth place, Severns had to play. In the second game, Capsize, eight balls weigh different amounts. Players pick up points by staying in the game as balls are drawn one at a time. If the ball’s weight tilts a swinging arm too far, the balls drop out and contestants still in gain no points in that game.
Severns stayed in as the first two balls were placed in the arm.
“After the second one, my wife was looking at me like it was time going over,” Severns said. He quit. He moved to second place.
The third game were questions and answers. Powerball asked questions of the general public. Contestants were expected to answer correctly how the public responded to the questions. In the first two questions, the four contestants with the least points are eliminated.
Severns jumped to first place after the first question. The question was whether most married men would get a tattoo of their wife’s name on their shoulder. Severns answered correctly that most married men surveyed would do it.
He answered the second question, whether violence on television affects children’s behavior, answered yes by those that Powerball asked.
He was one of two remaining and still in first against a woman from New Hampshire. If he missed the question, but the New Hampshire woman answered correctly, Severns would have been out. If he got it right there was no way to lose.
The question was whether most persons admitted they had overslept on a work day and just called in sick. He answered yes and was wrong. Fortunately for Severns, the New Hampshire contestant got it wrong too.
With that, Severns entered the bonus round, spinning a wheel with a giant red Powerball. The Powerball came to rest on $50,000.
“I was just like, whoa,” Severns said. “I was just thinking, $50,000.”
He was offered a chance to spin again with the $1 million prize on the wheel, but only two spots on the wheel would have given him more winnings, an 87 percent chance of losing a portion of his $50,000. He risked spinning to $10,000 or $25,000, substantially less than the $50,000.
“He looked at me like, what am I going to do,” Mrs. Severns said. She was thinking, “if you turn it in, you’re dead.”
“It would have been a long trip home if I thought I had just lost $40,000 in 10 seconds,” Severns said. He didn’t take the chance. After that though, “I wanted to go to Vegas, but my wife wouldn’t let me.”
Right now, the cash is drawing interest, but Mr. and Mrs. Severns are looking at purchasing a new home.
“I’ve been really lucky this year,” Severns said. “I just kept winning.”
Severns started playing the Lottery while working at Safeway. He would buy scratch-offs during his breaks. Right now, he scratches probably five tickets a week, but he expects to play less because it’s a new year. Severns’ favorite lottery ticket number is 31. He doesn’t like to purchase tickets on the ends of ticket packs.
“I play for fun, for entertainment purposes only,” Severns said. He sometimes buys Powerball lottery tickets when the jackpot gets high.
Earlier in the year, he won $10,000 at Spirit Mountain. Shortly after winning that, he won another $1,800. All of those wins were in the slots.
“This was my year,” Severns said. “It’ll probably never happen again.”
Mr. and Mrs. Severns have two children, Jerad, 10, and Brady, 7. Mr. Severns works at Wah Chang in Albany.