Two unrelated Stafford women won the top prizes for two different lottery games and both plan on spending it on a new house.
Anya Dennis received a phone call from her husband excitingly telling her that they matched all five numbers for the Cash 5 Lottery Game. According to a Virginia Lottery press release, the couple had bought 12 tickets for an upcoming June 14 drawing with all the same numbers.
Since they had won the top prize of $100,000 for those exact five numbers they chose 12 tickets for, they won total winnings of $1.2 million, according to Virginia Lottery’s press release. When officials at Virginia Lottery asked about Dennis’ reaction, she stated the following:
“I was screaming. I thought, ‘This can not be real!’”
The press release states that all 12 winning tickets were bought at the 7-Eleven at 4800 Dale Boulevard in Dale City. The winning numbers for that drawing were 9-13-19-26-29.
Dennis told Virginia Lottery officials that she intends to use the winnings to buy a house and pay for their two daughters’ college. According to the press release, when asked about why Dennis and her husband bought 12 tickets with the same numbers, she stated:
“We just went out on a limb,” she said.
Cash 5 drawings are held daily at 1:59 p.m. and 11 p.m. The odds of winning the $100,000 top prize are 1 in 278,256.
Ironically, another Stafford woman won a lottery game. Michelle Rivera scratched a Lucky 7s Cash Blowout ticket from the Virginia Lottery and when she realized she’d just won the game’s $2,777,777 top prize, she couldn’t contain her excitement as stated in a Virginia Lottery press release.
“I kept saying, ‘I can’t believe I won!’” she told Lottery officials as she claimed her prize. “The clerk told me to stop saying I won out loud and go home!”
According to the press release, Rivera waited more than four months before redeeming her ticket. She said she took the time to make a financial plan for her winnings.
The Virginia Lottery press release stated that she had the choice of taking the $2,777,777 prize in annual payments over 30 years or a one-time cash option of $1,671,346 before taxes. She chose the annual payments.
The press release stated that she bought her winning ticket at the 7-Eleven at 910 Garrisonville Road in Stafford. Luck 7s Cash Blowout is one of dozens of Scratchers currently offered by the Virginia Lottery.
Lucky 7s features prizes ranging from $20 up to $2,777,777. According to the press release, Rivera is the first player to redeem a top prize winning ticket in this game, which means two more are unclaimed.
The odds of winning that top prize are 1 in 979,200, while the odds of winning any prize in this game are 1 in 3.11. Rivera stated to Virginia Lottery officials that she intends to buy a house and pay off debt with her winnings.
