Just after midnight New Year’s Day (ET), one lucky person will become the first millionaire of 2022. This is the third year of the Powerball® promotion that occurs during “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest, live from New York’s Times Square. This is also the first time two of the five finalists are from the same state—Iowa. Shari Beenken, 57, is from Titonka, a small community in Kossuth County. She entered tickets she had purchased on her own. Fifty-year-old Rob Long of Waterloo, however, entered tickets purchased for a group of co-workers, friends and family members called Lotto 22. Beenken was shocked to hear she had become a finalist. “My heart was just beating and I started to have tears in my eyes and it’s like, ‘Oh my word! Oh, my word!” she says. Long was also shocked, but had fun spreading the word to his group. “I think the biggest thing for me was the surprise on everybody’s face and how happy they were that we have the opportunity to be where we’re at on this,” he says. Iowa and 28 other Powerballs participated in the First Millionaire of the Year promotion. The other three finalists are from Illinois, Louisiana and Pennsylvania. In September, 20 Iowa players were selected as preliminary finalists, receiving $2,500 each. These winners and 20 from each of the other lotteries were entered into a random drawing for the five finalists. Finalists already received a $10,000 cash prize and a home party package, which includes a 70-inch LED television, karaoke system, premium laptop computer and deluxe dinner for eight, valued at $10,000. Long, his wife and another member of their group held a drawing for the merchandise prizes and evenly split the cash prize. If that group wins, the $1 million, it will be divvied up at $45,000 per person before taxes.
