The rest of the documented roll

2001 — 2026

The three-time winner: Roger Douglas of Fort Wayne holds the city's documented record for repetition. In November 2001 he won $250,000 on a Polar Express scratch-off. In 2006 he won $25,000 in a holiday raffle game. On November 21, 2013, he made his third trip to the Hoosier Lottery claims office, this time with the grand-prize ticket in the Million Dollar Holiday scratch-off — a $1 million prize. "I thought $250,000 was once-in-a-lifetime," he told the reporters who covered the claim.

The county's other millionaires: Caren Merz of New Haven, in Allen County, won $2,445,204 playing Ca$h 5 in 2018, a jackpot in the Lottery's nightly draw game that stands as the county's largest documented non-lotto win. On the multi-state games, Fort Wayne's documented claims are second-tier and real: Lou Knoble of Fort Wayne won $150,000 on Powerball in the drawing of May 12, 2018 — four numbers plus the Powerball, with the Power Play he had added tripling the ordinary $50,000 prize — on a ticket bought at Belmont Beverage in Fort Wayne; and Girma Amtachew, a Fort Wayne resident, claimed the same $150,000 Powerball-with-Power Play prize from the drawing of September 1, 2025, on a ticket bought at Maysville Marathon, 9501 Maysville Road, after the jackpot had passed a billion dollars and drawn a scratch-off player into the draw game.

Sold here, claimed or not: The release record also fixes prizes to Fort Wayne stores without fixing them to Fort Wayne winners. A $100,000 Powerball-with-Power Play ticket was sold at Walmart #1804, 1710 Apple Glen Boulevard, for the drawing of March 27, 2024. In the drawing of April 29, 2026 — a $143.4 million Powerball jackpot split between Indiana and Kansas — one of the fourteen $1 million tickets sold in Indiana was bought at Kroger, 7006 Bluffton Road, in Fort Wayne; the release does not name its holder. And the boundary of the whole record should be stated plainly: Indiana's two Mega Millions jackpots were won in Munster (2011) and Cambridge City (2016), and none of Indiana's nation-leading run of Powerball jackpot wins — most recently $435 million at Lafayette in 2017 — was won in Fort Wayne, in any source reached. The city's game, at the top, has been Hoosier Lotto.

Sources:

1. Lottery Post, "Indiana man takes home third major lottery win" (November 22, 2013) — Roger Douglas's $250,000 (2001), $25,000 (2006), and $1 million (2013) prizes.
2. Hoosier Lottery notable-winners summary for 2018 — Caren Merz of New Haven, $2,445,204 on Ca$h 5.
3. Hoosier Lottery winner story, "Louis Knoble" (May 18, 2018), and news release on the September 1, 2025 drawing — the two $150,000 Powerball claims and their stores.
4. Hoosier Lottery news releases (March 28, 2024; April 2026) — the $100,000 ticket at Walmart #1804 and the $1 million ticket at the Bluffton Road Kroger.
5. Mega Millions and Hoosier Lottery releases — Indiana's Mega Millions jackpots of February 1, 2011 (Munster) and July 8, 2016 (Cambridge City), and the February 22, 2017 Powerball jackpot at Lafayette.