Ben Baker accomplished something even more remarkable than finding a four-leaf clover (1 in 10,000), having quadruplets (1 in 700,000), or Old Dominion winning the college football national championship 900 times.
During the March 4 drawing, a resident of Covington named Baker successfully matched four white balls and the Powerball. By investing an additional dollar in the Power Play option, his prize money of $50,000 tripled to a whopping $150,000. The likelihood of achieving such a remarkable feat is estimated to be 1 in 913,129.18.
Baker’s accomplishment through the Virginia Lottery was already significant enough, but it didn’t stop there. Alongside the initial achievement, Baker had purchased 10 tickets for the drawing, which included a second Powerball ticket that matched four white balls and the Powerball, with an added multiplier from the Power Play. As a result, Baker won a total of $300,000.
Spending a Saturday night like this isn’t too shabby.
Two Virginia Lottery tickets set up double-Powerball win
In preparation for the March 4 drawing, Baker visited his local Food Lion store in his hometown and bought 10 Powerball tickets, each with unique number combinations. Additionally, he decided to include the Power Play option for an additional dollar.
As Baker prepared for a late-night drawing on that Saturday, he eagerly awaited the outcome. The numbers displayed were 10-16-18-40-66, accompanied by a Powerball of 16. Surprisingly, two tickets not only matched the Powerball but also four of the five white balls. Typically worth $50,000, the value of those tickets tripled due to the Power Play feature.
Winning once in a drawing relies on luck, with the overall odds of winning any prize in Powerball being approximately 1 in 25. But hitting the jackpot twice? Baker summed it up perfectly when he received his Virginia lottery check:
“I was really lucky!”
The person who won in two categories stated that they would allocate their winnings towards home improvement, while also saving the rest.
It is worth mentioning that in the drawing held on March 4, there was a winner who surpassed Baker’s achievement. A person, whose identity remains unknown, bought a Powerball ticket in Dublin. This ticket matched all five white numbers and the Powerball, resulting in them claiming the incredible jackpot of $162.6 million. This win marks only the second time in the history of the state that such a top prize has been awarded.
Alexandria woman hits jackpot in Virginia online lottery game
Interestingly, the Lottery’s announcement of Baker’s winnings was not the sole $300,000 occurrence in the state.
While idling in her car at a parking lot, Kristeen Maddox opted to entertain herself by playing Virginia online lottery games. She specifically chose The Lamp, a game that offers a progressive jackpot that increases as players aim to match three or more clusters of identical symbols.
Afterward, the woman from Alexandria had a life-altering realization – Maddox had won a whopping jackpot of $293,508.
Maddox couldn’t believe it. “Is this actually happening?” she exclaimed. Naturally, when speaking to Virginia Lottery officials, she expressed her astonishment by saying, “I am completely amazed!”
In Virginia, every penny earned from the lottery is dedicated to supporting K-12 education. To put it into context, in the previous fiscal year, Covington, the hometown of Ben Baker, benefited from lottery funds with an amount exceeding $928,000, while Alexandria received an impressive sum of over $4.7 million. Remarkably, the Virginia Lottery managed to raise a staggering $779 million for education, constituting approximately 10% of the overall budget allocated to K-12 schools.
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