What started as a trip to the store to pick up some chocolate milk turned into the day a Virginia man won the $1,000,000 Platinum Jackpot ticket from the Virginia Lottery.
Dennis Willoughby of North Chesterfield went to a 7-Eleven location in Richmond, Virginia, to purchase the treat for his children. While he was there, he also bought the top prize-winning ticket.
"He won the choice of either the full $1 million prize in annual payments over 30 years, or a one-time cash option of $640,205 before taxes," said the lottery in a news release. "He chose the cash option."
According to the Virginia Lottery, this particular ticket, which costs $10, has prizes that range from $10 up to $1,000,000. There were three tickets that would have earned the ticket scratcher $1,000,000 and one winning ticket remains unclaimed.
The lottery said Willoughby is the second player to claim the top prize.
"The odds of winning the top prize in this game are 1 in 1,632,000. The odds of winning any prize are 1 in 3.92."
Willoughby isn't the only one who is reaping the benefits of winning the top prize from this lottery series. As the store that sold the winning ticket, the 7-Eleven location will receive a $10,000 bonus from the Virginia Lottery.
Proceeds from lottery sales have gone toward K-12 public education in Virginia since 1999. A state budget amendment passed that year sent lottery proceeds to local K-12 public schools for educational purposes. In 2000, the State Lottery Proceeds Fund was established and is now a permanent part of Virginia's Constitution.
In the previous fiscal year, which ended June 30, 2021, more than $765 million was put toward public education funding.
Newsweek reached out to Virginia Lottery and Dennis Willoughby for comment.
In late November, a man purchased two identical lottery tickets and won each time. Scotty Thomas of Fayetteville, North Carolina, accidentally bought identical tickets, but his numbers came up both times.
"I was just laying in bed watching a basketball game on TV, and I couldn't remember if I filled it out or not," Thomas said. "I went ahead and filled it out again and the next morning my son asked why there were two different amounts listed. I realized and said 'I think I filled it out twice.'"
The happy accident resulted in a prize amount totaling $780,000. After taxes, Thomas brought $551,851 home.
Meanwhile, the Virginia Lottery announced on Thursday that Virginians wagered over $400 million on sports during the month of November. It marked the second-highest monthly wagers since the inception of legal sports betting in the state earlier this year.
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