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How to play Penny Pelican
The mystery surrounding who won the $1.04 billion Powerball jackpot drawn on Aug. 12, 2026, has been solved—sort of. The Illinois Lottery announced that the winner came forward this week to claim the prize but chose to remain anonymous.
The big Powerball winner took advantage of Section 7.2 of the Illinois Lottery Law, which governs disclosure rules regarding winners’ identities.
Under Section 7.2, a winner of a prize of $250,000 or more can request to keep their name and municipality of residence confidential while completing their Illinois Lottery Winner Claim Form.
About Penny Pelican
While Alabama ranks 27th among the 50 states in population, the limited availability of gaming makes the state attractive to companies like VGW.
Alabama has only parimutuel betting, small games of chance for charitable purposes, and electronic bingo machines at three tribal casinos in Atmore, Montgomery, and Wetumpka.
According to its annual report, VGW generated revenue of $4.76 billion in its 2025 fiscal year, resulting in a net profit of $428 million. Despite operating in fewer states, VGW’s platforms grew profits and revenue from its 2024 fiscal year.
How to play Penny Pelican
50 Cent previewed the project on Instagram on Sept. 17, 2026, framing the venture as the long-overdue legitimization of a game that always played by its own rules.
“For a hundred years this game lived on the corner,” he said in TCS/JOHNHUXLEY’s press release. “Now it’s got a dealer, a pay table and a seat at the table in a real casino. Same dice, new floor.”
Cee-lo—derived from sì wǔ liù (Chinese for “four-five-six”)—is played with three six-sided dice. Popular among Chinese-American players as early as 1893, it was adopted by hip-hop culture in the late 1970s and became a fixture on the street corners of Harlem, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.
Nas, the Notorious B.I.G., and Jadakiss all referenced the game in their music. Kool G Rap called his 1995 album 4,5,6, and its title track included the line “Headcrack, time to get the bread”—the lyric that most likely inspired 50 Cent’s casino adaptation.