Virginia woman accidently buys Powerball ticket, wins $1 million
Lottery fever hits DMV with nearly $2B up for grabs
The stars have aligned in the lottery universe like never before, with two jackpots totaling nearly $2 billion. With an estimated $1.1 billion Mega Millions prize and an estimated $800 million Powerball jackpot, it’s the first time the two nearly national lottery games have each grown so large at the same time.
VIRGINIA - A Virginia woman is the most recent winner of a $1 million-dollar prize.
Miriam Long went to the Virginia Lottery machine at the CVS at 1775 South Main Street in Blacksburg to buy a Mega Millions ticket after seeing all the attention with an estimated $893 million jackpot.
The Christiansburg woman wanted to get in the game but accidentally hit the button for a Powerball ticket. That "accidental" ticket ended up matching the first five winning numbers in the March 18 Powerball drawing to win $1 million.
$1 million winning Powerball tickets sold in Maryland, Virginia; jackpot hits $1.09 billion
Three lucky Powerball tickets worth $1 million each were sold in Maryland and Virginia for Monday’s drawing – but still no big jackpot winner as the grand prize rose yet again.
"It’s the best mistake of my life!" she told Lottery officials.
The winning numbers were 10-17-20-39-44, and the Powerball number was 16. The only number she didn’t match was the Powerball number. She allowed the computer to randomly select the numbers on her ticket.
She’s not the only winner. Retailers that sell a $1 million winning ticket receive a $10,000 bonus from the Virginia Lottery. Long couldn't believe how much money she'd won.
"My heart was pounding!" she said. "It’s overwhelming!"
Powerball drawings are held at 10:59 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The odds of matching all six numbers to win the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million. The overall odds of winning any Powerball prize are 1 in 25.