Illinois Lottery Winner

Richard Shepardson of Dekalb, Illinois, won $234,941.50 in the Illinois Little Lotto on September 9, 1992. One of my customers spotted my name in the Sept. 23 issue of The MidWeek Dekalb newspaper in which Shepardson credited his win to using my book, Lotto How to Wheel a Fortune.

The next day, I received a very nice letter from Richard. He wrote: "Dear Gail, After using your book, Lotto How to Wheel a Fortune, for 3 months, I thought I would drop you a line to let you know that using System #3005 on the Illinois Little Lotto my wife and I hit the 1st Prize on Sept. 9. Our total prize winnings were $234,941.50. Along with the 1st prize we also hit 4 numbers and 3 numbers twice.

"Before winning I had played Lotto for 8 years and Little Lotto 3 years and never had very good luck. But once I got your book and started using it, I felt that is was just a matter of time before we would win.

"We are still playing both Lotto games, only a little more now and I feel with a little luck we may win the big Lotto. I am very interested in any other systems you have come up with since this book was printed, especially systems that use all the numbers. Things are looking up for us and I would just like to say thank you. Sincerely, Richard Shepardson."

Richard had taken a six-month subscription to Lottery Players Magazine where he spotted the ad for my book. He told me he was convinced that there was something to it and decided to order the book when he read in the ad that I had appeared on The Today Show and Good Morning America, He said, "The first week I got your book, I won $120.00. Right then and there, I thought, 'This is it!! Here we go! It's just a matter of time.' Three months later, I won the $234, 693.50 Little Lotto jackpot. I'm working on my second jackpot right now."

"I watched the drawing on TV and got the numbers as they came off the screen. I saw that I had three of them, then five. My adrenalin started pumping. It pumped all night long. I was so 'up,' I never got to sleep that night. I couldn't believe we did this. I kept thinking about what we could do with the money.

"About a year-and-a-half ago, we had a fire in our house. My wife, Betty, had quit her job because she was about to give birth to our third child. "We really needed the money. Ever since I hit this, life has really gotten better.

"With the money I won, we paid off the house, bought a car and a computer, put money away for our kids' education (ages 7, 5 and 8 months) and donated to some organizations. We had always thought that if we ever were to win, we would donate to Special Olympics, Just Say No to drugs, Hospice -- which we did -- and also to the Red Cross for the hurricane damage in Florida."

Richard Shepardson has become a bit of a local celebrity in spite of trying to keep the win quiet.

"What's really amazing about it is I didn't tell anybody. I went to Ralph's Newsstand, where I bought my tickets, and quietly filed my claim. Within 30 minutes, a guy I used to work with called and said, 'You son-of-a-gun! You won didn't you! Everyone at the plant knew that I had won. The next day, everyone in town who knew me, knew I had won. I never had to tell anybody. People would say, 'Hey, Mr. Lucky.' The guys at work said, 'Hey can I borrow your book? I just can't win nothing.'

"I say, 'If you played for a ling time and you're tired of not winning and ready to give up, I advise them to use Gail's systems because it maximizes the win for your dollar and increases your odds of winning. I've increased my winnings ever since I used the book.'"

The local paper called Richard for an interview and ran the following story:

"NOT JUST LUCK . . . Richard Shepardson, of DeKalf, takes his Lotto seriously. which has finally paid off well. On Sept. 9, the 32-year-old father of three won $234,693 in the Illinois Lottery's Little Lotto game, with a ticket bought at Ralph's Newsstand, in DeKalb. Shepardson, an operator at Byron Nuclear Power Station, has played Little Lotto three days a week for eight years straight, he said. He has hit four and three numbers once in a while. But, after eight years and not much to show for it, he was enticed by an ad in a lottery magazine for a book written by Gail Howard. He credits the $20 book for helping him pick the winning numbers 3-18-20-27-31. On three other tickets bought that day, he also hit four and three numbers for $17.41, he said. Shepardson, a DeKalb native, said after taxes he e xpects to get $150,000-$160,000. He and his wife will use the money to pay off their house, buy a new car and put away for their children's educations. He said he'll keep using the book. 'When I win $27 million, then I'll retire (from the game),' he said."