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WESTON MAN WINS MORE THAN $100,000 IN LOTTERY PRIZES SINCE 1986
July 23, 2008
An avid lottery fan, Melvin Shields has won more than $100,000 since the first lottery ticket was sold in 1986, but is quick to qualify it. “I don’t keep it. I have either paid it in taxes or given it away to everything from Hurricane Katrina and tsunami victims, to police and veterans’ funds, to hungry children. I’m covered up with junk mail.”
Lottery Director John Musgrave said that this week Shields claimed another $2,600 prize, as well a $5,000 prize from the Lottery’s Daily4 drawing held July 10; the winning tickets were purchased at 7-Eleven on N. Main in Weston. He said the largest prize claimed by Shields was a $50,000 winning ticket from the Lottery’s instant game Fantastic 5s in 2006.
Lottery records indicate that while Shields has won multiple $2,600 prizes in the Lottery’s Daily4 game, he won two of that game’s top $5,000 prizes last year. In addition, he won a $25,000 Cash25 prize in 2005.
Shields said he wanted to make it clear that lottery games are strictly games of chance, not sound investments. “I win a lot, but I spend a lot. At one time I may have been $60,000 ahead, but most of the time it’s a break even deal for me.”
Retired from General motors since 1983, Shields said that at 77 his life is simple and debt free. “I own everything I have outright, I don’t have a wife or children, I don’t go anywhere except to music festivals, I don’t belong to any clubs, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke and I have savings for a rainy day. I simply play lottery games for entertainment.”
Shields said he grew up in Braxton County, joined the military when he was 17, and worked in the steel mills before being employed by General Motors in Cleveland. But West Virginia has always held his heart. “I moved to Buckhannon to be near a brother when I retired, but ended up buying a place in Weston.”
While excitement over a win is not the same as it was in 1986, Shields said he gives thanks where thanks is due. “I just say, ‘Thank God,’ and go on. Now if I were to win a jackpot, I might jump up and down a bit, but I don’t look for it to happen.”
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