Mass. State Lottery commemorates 50th anniversary of first drawing

BOSTON — Fifty years ago Wednesday, on the morning of, April 6, 1972, the Massachusetts Lottery held its first-ever drawing at Faneuil Hall in Boston with seven lucky players each winning a $50,000 top prize.

“Today is a special day in the Lottery’s history,” said State Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg, chair of the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission. “Our first drawing was just the beginning of 50 Years of Winning, and our very first top prize winner was one of many who have been able to turn their Lottery win into lasting memories for their families.”

Later in the day, Donald Cosentino of Gardner, then a 37-year-old furniture factory foreman, became the first lottery winner in state history when he certified his good fortune at Gardner City Hall.

“We have five children and I bought them all bicycles,” said Cosentino, now 87 years old and still residing in Gardner with his wife Aline in the same house that they lived in 50 years ago. “I was a foreman at a furniture factory. We also bought a camper so that we could all go camping together. We were able to put the money to good use.”

The winning numbers were 302424. Tickets for the drawing were 50 cents each and a total of 4,783,000 million tickets were sold by over 3,000 participating agents.

Since selling its first ticket on March 22, 1972, the Mass Lottery has generated over $137 billion in revenues, awarded over $96 billion in prizes, returned over $30 billion in net profit to the Commonwealth for unrestricted local aid provided to cities and towns, and paid over $7.8 billion in commissions and bonuses to its statewide network of retailers.

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