Nevada County woman wins $75,000 Natural State Jackpot

One Arkansan departed from their usual lottery playing routine “out of the blue” and hit the jackpot.

The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery on Thursday, March 20th identified the woman as P. Welch of Nevada County. She won $75,000 in the March 13 Natural State Jackpot (NSJ) drawing.

She claimed her prize at the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery (ASL) Claim Center on March 17. The winning ticket was ordered via the Jackpocket mobile app. The winning numbers were 3, 8, 22, 29 and 37.

Welch ordered the winning ticket with $4, which she had won in a previous drawing. The Nevada County woman never plays NSJ, preferring games like Cash 3, Cash 4 and Powerball. She typically selects birthdays as her numbers. This time, however, Welch decided to try her luck with the computer-generated numbers on a Quick Pick ticket.

“I just did that out of the blue,” Welch told lottery officials. Unbeknownst to Welch, her spur-of-the-moment decision would land her the massive prize. While at home, she received a notice from Jackpocket saying, “Big winner.”

“I thought I won a dollar,” Welch said.

The player checked her ticket and to her astonishment, saw that she had matched all five winning numbers needed to win the jackpot. Welch shared the good news with her boyfriend, mother and daughter, all of whom were elated. The lucky winner’s boyfriend later accompanied her to the ASL Claim Center.

“We’ve been hoping for something good to happen,” he said. With her winnings, Welch plans to help her mom and start a business.

Welch is one of two jackpot winners for the March 13 drawing. They will split the $150,000 prize evenly, each receiving $75,000. The second jackpot-winning ticket for the March 13 drawing has yet to be claimed. The ticket was sold at University Shell, 3200 South University Ave. in Little Rock.

The winner has 180 days from the draw date to claim their prize.