On May 20, Malcolm Meredith, a Manassas, VA resident, acquired a Virginia Lottery ticket for the Mega Millions drawing.
Although he didn’t claim the ultimate Jackpot, he did secure a $1 million prize.
He thought he lost at first but held on to hope
According to the Virginia Lottery, Meredith opted for the Easy Pick feature to choose his Mega Millions numbers. This entails the computer randomly selecting each number on behalf of the player.
He bought his ticket at Harris Teeter, the Manassas supermarket that is located 30 miles away from the Washington D.C. region.
After the drawing, Meredith had a feeling that he might be the lucky winner of a prize. However, when he showed his ticket to someone, they insisted that he was not a winner.
Meredith expressed her hope and prayers as weeks went by, while he continued to hold on to his ticket.
Mega Millions winning discovered weeks later
After several weeks, Meredith finally sought a second opinion and discovered that his ticket had actually won him a specific sum of prize money.
Armed with his ticket, he made his way to the North Virginia State Lottery Customer Service Center in Woodbridge, Virginia. It was there that Meredith discovered the truth – his ticket was worth a whopping $1 million.
On May 20th, the Mega Millions drawing revealed the winning numbers as follows: 33, 40, 59, 60, and 69, with the Mega Ball number being 22. A whopping $131 million Jackpot prize was awarded to the lucky individual who successfully matched all five numbers and the Mega Ball number.
Meredith successfully matched all five numbers, excluding the Mega Ball number, and was awarded a grand total of $1 million in prize money.
How to play Virginia Lottery’s Mega Millions
In the state of Virginia, the Mega Millions lottery is administered by the Virginia Lottery. For a price of $2 per ticket, customers can participate in the game.
Players have the freedom to select any five numbers for Mega Millions, provided that they fall within the range of 1 to 70. Additionally, they can choose their Mega Ball number from the options of 1 to 25.
Customers have the option to use the Easy Pick feature, which enables the computer to randomly select the numbers. Alternatively, players can opt for a combination of manually chosen numbers and random ones.
Every player has an opportunity to win both cash prizes and the ultimate jackpot. The jackpot keeps increasing until someone successfully matches all six numbers, and it is also conceivable for multiple players to win and divide a single jackpot among themselves.
The Mega Millions winner is selected twice a week, specifically on Tuesdays and Fridays, at 11 p.m. in the local time zone.
The winning numbers are broadcasted by local Virginia TV stations, and the Virginia Lottery also shares this information on its website. Additionally, players have the option to visit a Virginia Lottery retailer and have their ticket scanned to check if it is a winner.
The prizes for winning tickets are predetermined at fixed amounts ranging from $2 to $1 million, based on the quantity of matched numbers on the ticket. However, the jackpot prize amounts fluctuate for each drawing.
Prize amounts and odds of winning the Virginia Lottery Mega Millions
In order to win the Mega Millions grand prize, a ticket needs to have an exact match of all five balls along with the Mega Ball. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350 for players.
In order to secure the $1 million prize, players are only required to match the five balls and are not obligated to match the Mega Ball. The chances of winning this prize stand at 1 in 12,607,306.
Twice a week, there is a chance to win a $10,000 prize by matching four balls along with the Mega Ball. The probability of winning this prize is 1 in 931,001.
Having a chance to win smaller prizes ranging from $2 to $500 is slightly more favorable. The probability of winning these prizes varies from 1 in 37 to 1 in 38,792.
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