News writer
If you are going to win the lottery, you might as well share the love (and winnings) with your loved ones, right?
One happy family
Daniel Ceroni was about to head out of town when he decided to check the winning Powerball numbers for the June 22 drawing. In a surprise twist, the Henrico man discovered his ticket matched five of the six winning numbers for that drawing, and he won $1 million!
Ceroni told lottery officials, “I couldn't believe it!”
A few weeks later, Ceroni headed to lottery headquarters to claim his prize, but he brought along three family members to share in the winnings. Those family members were Danielle Brundage of Port Orchard, Washington; Tracy Zaldivar of Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Teresa Bass of Spotsylvania, Virginia.
Ceroni decided to evenly split the winnings among all the family members, so they each received $250,000 before taxes.
The winning numbers
The winning white ball numbers for that June 22 drawing were 4, 5, 15, 32, and 62, and the Powerball number was 21. Ceroni's ticket happened to match all of the white ball numbers but not the Powerball number to win $1 million.
For that June 22 drawing, Ceroni's ticket was one of just two tickets nationwide to win the $1 million prize and the only one bought in Virginia.
The winning ticket was purchased at the Food Lion, located at 2599 New Market Road in Varina. Ceroni used the Easy Pick option, allowing the computer to generate these winning numbers for him.
For selling the winning ticket, the Food Lion will receive a $10,000 bonus from the Virginia Lottery.
The trip home from work pays off
Another lucky Virginia Lottery player decided to make a quick stop on his way home from work, and it paid off.
John Wise stopped at Chubby's, located at 4200 Anderson Highway in Powhatan. While at the store, he decided to buy a Scorching Hot 7s scratch-off ticket. After scratching it, he realized he'd won the game's $777,777 top prize!
Wise told lottery officials, “It was just a fluke!”
Fluke or not, Wise claimed one of those top prizes available in the scratcher game. Scorching Hot 7s features prizes ranging from $30 up to the top prize of $777,777. Wise was the second person to claim the top prize in the game, which means there is one more top prize out there to be claimed.
Jaw-dropping online win
Another Virginia Lottery player had quite the reaction when he won a jackpot worth $165,002 playing the Lottery's High Roller Jackpot online game.
William Norris told lottery officials, “I was shaking! It was a feeling like I've never had before!”
The Mineral man happened to be sitting at home playing the online game when he hit the big jackpot. He told lottery officials the prize is a “jaw dropper.”
High Roller Jackpot is an online game from the state lottery. It features a progressive, growing jackpot and can be played on the Virginia Lottery's website or on their mobile app.
Enjoy playing the Virginia Lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.
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