Winning $1 Million in the Lottery May Send Oregon Woman to Jail

On October 12, Christina Goodenow of White City, OR, became the Oregon Lottery’s newest millionaire after winning a $1 million grand prize in the Million Dollar Jackpot Scratch-It game. Goodenow bought the ticket with her groceries at Fair City Market in Central Point, and was ecstatic to discover that she had matched the winning number 17 on her Scratch-it ticket in the game "Million Dollar Jackpot," a game with a total prize payout of $5.6 million. She dropped everything that day and traveled to the Oregon Lottery headquarters in Salem to accept an installment payment of $33,500. The $1 million grand prize is paid out over 20 years, so Goodenow took her first payment and went home to enjoy her new life as a millionaire.

On October 26 Oregon detectives began tracking the 38-year old Goodenow after an investigation showed that she had used a stolen credit card to purchase several items, including the lottery ticket that had made her front-page news. The card had belonged to her mother-in-law, who died more than a year ago. On Thursday a search warrant was served at her home, and police found some methamphetamine, but almost no money. Goodenow is now facing numerous charges related to the theft, including forgery and possession of methamphetamine.

Oregon Lottery officials are not talking about specifics of the case because an investigation is still under way. But Lottery spokesman Chuck Baumann said, "I'll be fascinated to see how this shakes out. In my 12 years with the Oregon Lottery, this is the first time I've encountered something like this." If she is convicted of any of the charges, Goodenow won’t be able to collect prize money from the winning ticket, said police Lt. Tim George. "Our investigation is still trying to determine what happened to the $33,500," George said.

Since the Oregon Lottery began selling tickets in 1985 it has earned over $4 billion for public education, economic development, and natural resource programs. Since its inception it has paid its players more than $10 billion in prizes to happy people whose lives probably changed dramatically as a result of becoming millionaires overnight. Christina Goodenow is making history as the first overnight millionaire who might also have her life changed dramatically, but in a different way, by ending up in jail and having her millionaire status revoked.