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High Ridge Couple Claim Show Me Cash Jackpot

When a High Ridge man saw the Missouri Lottery’s Show Me Cash jackpot was climbing towards half a million dollars, he thought, "that would make for a pretty good year," so he tried his luck.  It was $1 well spent for Daniel Balmer who ended up winning the $506,083 jackpot prize from the Sept. 26 drawing.

Balmer, 43, discovered he won the jackpot when he stopped at a convenience store to cash a winning Powerball ticket worth $2 and check his Show Me Cash ticket a few days after the drawing.

"I saw the number come up for half a million dollars," he began.  "I couldn’t believe it, so I had to go back and scan it again.  I cashed out the $2 Powerball, and asked the cashier to scan it again just to brag."        

 Balmer’s next step was to pick up his wife and head to the Lottery’s St. Louis regional office to claim the prize.  He added that his wife, whom he shared the news with over the phone, was hard to convince.

"She called me a liar for the entire drive," he said over laughter.  "She said she was going to call a divorce lawyer if this was some kind of joke."

The financial advisor is accustomed to giving advice to his clients, but he never anticipated winning the Lottery and having to decide for himself how to spend half a million dollars.

"We want to be slow, careful and smart about spending," he said, adding that they planned to buy a new car and help out their parents who were at "retiring age." 

Balmer noted that in his job, he often tells people "not to bet on winning the lottery," but he said that now he has "to stop saying that," because he is proof that dreams can come true.  Balmer added that "this is the biggest thing I’ve ever won.  I think I won $200 in the Lottery before about a decade ago."

Balmer used Quick Pick to select the winning numbers, which were:  8, 10, 24, 34 and 35.  He purchased the winning ticket at Petro Mart, 5300 Caroline Drive in High Ridge.

Show Me Cash offers a rolling jackpot starting at $50,000, which increases by at least $5,000 at each drawing.  The Balmers were the 55th jackpot winners since the game began on Sept. 8.