Jerry Ragsdale of Casper is on a roll right now. He just got his first elk in four years, won $10,000 off a gaming machine in Casper, and bagged a $2 million lottery ticket.
Ragsdale’s winning lottery ticket was actually easier to get than the elk was, but not by as much as one might think.
The elk took him a three-hour wait in pouring rain, followed by six hours of slowly creeping up on a small bull elk, past six mule deer, a doe and a flock of sage grouse, all of which threatened to spook his prey.
Then there was packing the elk out, all of which made it a long and winding day that started at 6 a.m. and didn’t end until 10 p.m. that night.
The lottery ticket purchase also turned out to be a bit of a wild ticket chase for Ragsdale.
“I was checking on my (oilfield) rigs down in Rock Springs,” Ragsdale told Cowboy State Daily. “And I was going to be there later in the evening, so I wouldn’t be in time to get a lottery ticket here in Casper.”
Ragsdale decided to take care of that the easy way. He stopped in at Cruel Jack’s Travel Plaza, which was on his way, to buy a ticket. But it turned out there was no ATM where he could get the cash which was required to buy seven of the $2 tickets with a $1 Power Play.
“So, I actually left Cruel Jacks to go find an ATM,” Ragsdale said. “And my GPS was all messed up to where it wouldn’t take me to the local bank that was there.”
Eventually, Ragsdale was able to find an ATM at a Wells Fargo location, where he took out $40 to buy the tickets he wanted. Then he stopped at the nearest convenience store. It was a random Loaf and Jug at 3036 College Drive in Rock Springs.
“She asked me if I wanted it all on one ticket or separate, and I told her whichever is easier for you,” Ragsdale said. “And lo and behold, she gave me one of the winning tickets.”
Ragsdale’s winning numbers were 3, 16, 29, 61, 69, with a Powerplay of 5.
That made him one of four $2 million winners that day, with the others coming from Michigan, Oregon, and Texas.
Infrequent Player
Ragsdale doesn’t play the lottery very often and the only lottery he plays is Powerball.
The jackpot this time was $1.4 billion when he bought his ticket. It eventually climbed to $1.8 billion — the second highest in history — before two people, one from Texas and one from Missouri, finally won on Sept. 5.
It’s only the second time Ragsdale has played Powerball. The trigger for him is when the numbers are really high, approaching a billion.
His rationale is that’s a life-changing statistic, one he can’t win if he doesn’t play. He’ll typically buy seven random numbers, but, other than that, he doesn’t have any kind of a system.
“I just do the random draw because what are the odds of me picking the exact numbers that they’re thinking,” he said. “So just give me the random numbers, since you guys are doing random as well for a winner. That’s how I look at it.”
He also has no good luck charms or lucky rabbits’ feet either — though, after this, he could probably make a small fortune selling such items by simply advertising that he has touched them, considering his lucky streak of late.
The $10,000 he won off a gambling machine was just three days after he won $2 million in Powerball. Then he headed off for his first successful elk hunt in four years, one that beat an awful lot of odds, given how many animals he had to sneak past to get it.
Ragsdale isn’t convinced, however, that lucky streaks matter.
“I don’t believe in that stuff,” he said. “I just believe that you take care of yourself and others around you, and something good will come your way.”
Prior to now, Ragsdale added, he’d had a string of really terrible luck. He sees it as the universe just “finally evening out for me.”
Lump Sum
Ragsdale is taking his win in a lump sum, so it will only be worth about $1.4 million. And after federal taxes, it will be worth about $250,000 less than that. Still, that makes this oilfield worker an instant millionaire, and, in his mind, a new member of the stress-free life club.
Like most who play the lottery, Ragsdale already has a little plan in his head for the money. He wants to pay off all of his debts, including his home. Then he will set up college funds for his two teenage daughters, so that they are taken care of as well.
Whatever is left, he will likely invest in the oil and gas industry, which is an industry he knows well, since he’s been employed in that sector for the last 27 years. Right now, he’s doing sales and service for drilling rigs.
This plan should allow Ragsdale to retire in as little as five years, at which point he will be just 52.
Retire, however, might be a misnomer here. What Ragsdale actually plans to do is start a hunting guide business, a longtime dream of his.
That business will be somewhere in Wyoming, likely the Dubois area, he said. Although that’s not where he got his most recent elk. That lucky spot was on Casper Mountain.
Ragsdale hadn’t gotten an elk in four years, he added, largely because he was waiting for one with a lot of horns. This year he decided forget about the horns, and just go for a lot of nice, delicious elk meat in his freezer.
This won’t be the last time Ragsdale goes hunting for elk, he added. Nor will it be the last time he buys himself a lottery ticket anytime Powerball is getting close to a billion.
After all, his next round of tickets will still be buying that equally slim chance that next time he’ll win the billion-dollar jackpot, instead of just a million.
“If that 5 would have just been a 22, I wouldn’t have had to share the billion with anyone,” he said.
It’s a bit like hunting. You never know for sure what’s going to happen out there in the wild woods where the elk roam, until you go and see. Nor can you say what will happen when you drop by your favorite convenience store to pick up a few lottery tickets.
GPS might send you a different way, fate might take a hand, and then you might be holding a completely unexpected billion-dollar lottery ticket the next time. Or just another $2 million jackpot.
Either way, life is all good, as long as you take your chances whenever you can get them.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
