Baton Rouge, La. – Evan Bauer, 29, of Slidell was just warming up when he matched five of the six Lotto numbers in the July 4 drawing to win a $1,842 Louisiana Lottery prize, but he hit a homerun in the subsequent Lotto drawing, matching all six numbers to win the $1,716,696 jackpot.
"Pick your numbers and stick to them," said Bauer, "Eventually it will pay off!"
Bauer claimed his prize at Lottery headquarters in Baton Rouge on Monday.
The winning ticket was sold at the RaceTrac on Gause Boulevard in Slidell and the store will receive a bonus of $17,167, which is 1% of the prize, for the sale.
Bauer says he plans to put the money into savings while he thinks carefully about how to spend it.
After federal and state taxes were withheld, Bauer received $1,201,687.
The Lotto jackpot on July 7 was the largest won since 2009 and had been rolling since March 10, 2012.
The winning numbers for the July 7 Lotto drawing were 03-06-09-10-14-25.
