Virginia man goes out for chicken, wins $500,000 lottery jackpot

A Virginia man recently went to the grocery store to pick up some chicken – and came back half a million dollars richer. Winner, winner, chicken dinner – literally.

Russell Gomes, of South Boston, Virginia, went to the Food Lion grocery store recently to buy chicken, he told the Virginia Lottery's website.

South Boston is located in southern Virginia, about 20 miles north of the North Carolina border.

While he was shopping, he decided to buy a scratch-off ticket – specifically, the Virginia Lottery's "Magnificent 7s" scratcher.

Gomes, a tractor-trailer driver, went to scratch off his ticket in the store's parking lot – and got the surprise of a lifetime.

"I really didn’t believe it!" he told Lottery officials when he redeemed his winning ticket on May 3. "It feels great!

A trip to the grocery store paid off big time for Russell Gomes of South Boston, Virginina – he won $500,000 in a scratch-off game. (iStock / iStock)

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Gomes told the Virginia Lottery that he plans on using his winnings to pay off a vacation that he had already scheduled.

Magnificent 7s, the game Gomes played, has prizes ranging from $20 to $500,000, said the Virginia Lottery.

This was about 10% of the commonwealth's budget for K-12 schools, said the Virginia Lottery's website.

These funds are distributed throughout Virginia's counties.

Gomes lives in Halifax County, noted the Virginia Lottery's website, which received "more than $4.4 million in Lottery funds for K-12 education last fiscal year."

During the 2023 fiscal year, the Virginia Lottery had sales of $4.6 billion.

Of those sales, more than $3.5 billion was distributed to lottery winners and the retailers who sold the winning tickets, said the lottery's website.

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