Hank Robinson has been playing the Colorado Lottery for 18 years, always using the same numbers.
On Saturday, the 81-year-old retired railroad engineer’s perseverance paid off when he hit the jackpot for $9.2 million. He received his check today.
He was thrilled to accept the check, but said he didn’t need much.
“I’ve seen everything I want so far,” said the lifelong bachelor. He said he would share the money with his three surviving sisters and their families, which include a “whole bunch” of nieces and nephews.
“It’s still sinking in,” he said. “The kids are pretty happy about it because they know they’re going to get some of it.”
Robinson found out he hit the numbers when he checked his Sunday paper. His good fortune didn’t sink in right away, he said. “I sat there for about 15 minutes, then I put the rest of my clothes on and jumped in the van and went down to King Soopers,” where he bought the ticket.
Robinson spent 36 years as a locomotive engineer for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. The Lakewood resident arrived at the Colorado Lottery office in Denver with his sister Beverly, a nephew, Terry, and two grand-nephews, Tanner, 10, and Mitchell,6. Beverly refused to give her last name, saying that if it became public she would be besieged with calls from sales people.
Robinson also owned and ran a holiday gift shop in Lakewood for 25 years but had to retire from the business in 1996 after heart problems required a quintuple bypass.
After thinking awhile about the money, he said there is one thing he wants to buy — a new van. He’s never owned a new van in his life, and drives a 1993 GMC van.
Robinson said he got the winning numbers from his sister, Beverly, then made one change. The string of numbers came from the birthdays of family members, as well as the ages of two nieces and nephews.
Beverly said her brother started out buying eight tickets a week when the lottery was introduced. He later upped his investment to about 16 tickets a week.
Robinson, who won smaller $500 jackpots five times over the years, isn’t about to quit playing the number now that he has hit big.
“I have already got my numbers for next week,” he said.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
