The Recent Victory
Wilson purchased a 100X Cash ticket for 10 bucks at a Family Food Mart in Mansfield. She scratched it off and turned out to have the lucky ticket.
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The convenience store will receive $10,000 for selling the winning ticket. For this second win, Wilson plans to put her earnings into savings.
The First Win
Earlier this year, on February 23, Wilson also won the $1 million prize on a Lifetime Millions on an instant ticket that cost $50.
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With the money she won in February, she’d put some of them towards an SUV purchase. Lifetime Millions was launched to give its players an opportunity to win $1 million a year for life. Wilson chose to have it paid once with the sum of $650,000 (before taxes).
Mansfield Stores Also Receiving Prize
The first store where Wilson bought her Lifetime Millions ticket will also receive $10,000 for selling the winning ticket, just like the second.
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That first store was Dubs’s Discount Liquors in Mansfield, a package store that also serves deliveries for their customer’s wine and liquor orders.
Beating the Odds
Wilson clearly beat the odds twice. The first time, the odds of winning the top prize ($1 million) in Lifetime Millions, are 1 in 8,400,000. Meanwhile, the overall odds are 1 in 4.10.
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The 100X Cash’s top prize is $4 million and the second top prize is $1 million. For these respective prizes, the odds are 1 in 5,376,000 and 1 in 1,612,800. This time, the overall odds are 1 in 3.47.
Joining the Ranks of Double-Winners
Wilson has joined the ranks of lottery “double-winners,” those who’ve won the lottery twice. One man in Michigan, for example, won twice in his state’s lottery event.
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Both times, the Michigan man won $110,000 from the state’s Fantasy 5 Double Play drawing. The first time he won was in August 2023. Six months later, he won again in February.
Smaller Prize, Still Big Luck
Of course, because the winnings of the other double-winners are not as big as Wilson’s, these victories might seem small in comparison. But there’s no denying that these people have luck on their side.
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Jennifer Minton from Gloucester, Virginia, for example, won $50,000 from playing Virginia’s Safari Quest online game. A week later, she won a bigger prize ($1 million) from the same game.
A Couple’s Victory
Equally astounding is when a couple win the same huge prize from two separate tickets. In March 2023, a couple from New South Wales, Australia, won two $1-million prizes on separate tickets in the same drawing for the country’s Lotto game.
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The woman had been playing the Lotto game for decades, always using the same numbers. She believed one day her numbers would be drawn… and now, this has come true.
Lotteries in the U.S.A
Lotteries are kind of a big deal in the U.S., run by state jurisdictions. 45 out of 50 U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands run lotteries. They have become a source of revenue for these states.
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Out of the ones that don’t run lotteries, Alabama cited religious objections and Utah constitutionally banned gambling of all forms.
Competition Against Casinos
Meanwhile, Nevada lobbied against state-run lotteries out of fear for competition with its casinos in Las Vegas. The state is unlikely to change its mind about it.
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Mississippi used to worry about the same. The state’s Gaming Commission worried over the competing force for the casinos. But in 2018, the state reversed the regulations and began selling lottery tickets.
New Technology Support
Traditional lotteries still exist everywhere, scratch tickets not having gone out of style yet. Actual, physical tickets are still widely used in various state lotteries.
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But these days, new technology is supporting the sales of lottery tickets. Digital vendors like Lotto.com, Lottery.com, and the smartphone app Jackpocket are making online purchases for lottery tickets available.
The Unlikeliest Winners
Still, those who win lotteries usually have a unique story to tell. Their purchase might be completely common, traditional, or innocuous, but their victory feels greater because of it.
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A woman from Portland, Oregon, who won $1 million after finding a forgotten ticket stuffed in a Tupperware container, for example, has an incredible story to tell. Some people just have the best luck in the world.