Is Something Evil Behind Virginia Lottery’s $8M in Pick 4 Jackpots?

Written By Dann Stupp on October 5, 2020Last Updated on November 13, 2020

The winning Pick 4 numbers have left several Virginia Lottery players with wickedly happy expressions on their faces this week.

In the end, they managed to win a staggering $8 million from the VA Lottery through the Pick 4 drawing on Sunday.

The unique winning numbers of the drawing, 6-6-6-6, have led to a significant player windfall.

In total, the Virginia Lottery collected $492,356 from Pick 4 plays during the Oct. 4 evening drawing. Surprisingly, it awarded $8 million in prizes, resulting in players gaining a whopping $7,507,644 from the drawing.

According to John Hagerty, the spokesperson for the Virginia Lottery, the customer service centers were bustling with activity as winners flocked to claim their prizes on Monday. In fact, Hagerty mentioned that the centers in Northern Virginia, Richmond, and Hampton Roads experienced long queues of eager winners eagerly waiting for the centers to open so they could cash in their winning tickets.

What led to such a large number of winners from a single Pick 4 drawing wasn’t solely attributed to extraordinary luck, but rather a combination of factors.

VA Lottery’s popular Pick 4 numbers

Quadruple numbers, also known as “quads,” are highly favored by lottery players, as highlighted by the VA Lottery in its Pick 4 announcement.

Furthermore, in Virginia, the Pick 4 lottery offers set odds. Should a participant successfully match all four numbers on a $1 ticket, they will be rewarded with a guaranteed $5,000 jackpot. Unlike lotteries that span across multiple states, like Mega Millions or Powerball, the officials do not divide the jackpot among multiple winners.

The winning numbers for the AM drawing of the VA Lottery Pick 4 on March 26, 2014, were identical to 6-6-6-6. This combination had only occurred once before, during the PM drawing on July 21, 1999.

According to VALottery.com, popular four-digit numbers like quads have won the Pick 4 on occasions other than the most recent one. Whether it was due to superstition (7-7-7-7), cliché (1-2-3-4), immaturity (8-0-0-8), or even playfulness (6-9-6-9), various popular number combinations have appeared in the Pick 4 in the past.

  • January 24, 2008 (evening drawing) – 0-0-0-0
  • June 29, 2001 (morning): 0-0-0-1
  • May 16, 2010 (PM): One zero one zero.
  • January 15, 2007 (afternoon): 1-1-1-1
  • June 25, 2016 (AM): 1-2-3-4
  • Jan. 5, 2020 (PM): 1-4-9-2
  • 1-7-7-6: Never
  • Oct. 25, 2015 (PM): 2-2-2-2
  • May 7, 2019 (morning): 3-1-4-1
  • 3-3-3-3: Never
  • December 18, 2014 (Morning): 4-3-2-1
  • February 28th, 2013 (Morning) – 4-4-4-4
  • 5-5-5-5: October 12, 2012 (in the evening)
  • Oct. 4, 2020 (evening): 6-6-6-6
  • 6-9-6-9: Never
  • April 13, 2004 (Morning): 7-7-7-7
  • 8-0-0-8: Never
  • October 2, 2015 (evening): 8-8-8-8
  • July 11, 2018 (PM): 9-9-9-9

On September 30, 1991, the Pick 4 game was introduced by the Virginia Lottery, with drawings being held twice daily.

More Pick 4 lottery lore

The Pick 4 game of the Virginia Lottery is gaining significant attention in the media.

In September, the official lottery of the commonwealth made headlines when several players managed to win multiple Pick 4 jackpots.

One player was able to win a single Pick 4 drawing 25 times, resulting in a total payout of $125,000. Each time, the identical ticket contributed an additional $5,000 to the overall sum.

After a couple of weeks, yet another player replicated the achievement by using only 20 tickets, resulting in a rewarding payday of $100,000.

The chances of winning the Pick 4 with an exact-order match are 1 in 10,000. Each ticket costs $1, thus the $5,000 grand prize only accounts for a modest 50% portion of the total prize money.

Nevertheless, even with the occurrence of an extraordinary number of 6-6-6-6 winners, the Virginia Lottery’s chances of achieving a lucrative draw each time are not guaranteed.

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Dann Stupp

Dann Stupp, residing in Lexington, Virginia, is an experienced sports journalist with an extensive background in writing and editing for various outlets such as The Athletic, USA Today, ESPN, and MLB.com.

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