Lottery player wins big prize in Virginia — then doubts whether his ticket is real

A volunteer firefighter brought home a major lottery prize from a Virginia scratch-off ticket — but he didn’t believe it.

Dwight Beane told lottery officials that he held the ticket in his hands and thought to himself, “There is no way this can be a real ticket!”

Not only was it real, it was the highest winning ticket in the scratch-off game, the Virginia Lottery said in a June 7 release.

Beane took home $200,000, beating the 1 in 1,632,000 odds.

The winner said he works as a volunteer firefighter and delivery driver. With the extra money, he can go to paramedic school, he told officials.

Beane’s win was the second claimed top prize in the Money Stacks game, officials said.

Beane lives in Newport News, about 27 miles north of Norfolk.

This story was originally published June 7, 2023 at 2:41 PM with the headline "Lottery player wins big prize in Virginia — then doubts whether his ticket is real."

Irene Wright

McClatchy DC

Irene Wright is a McClatchy Real-Time reporter. She earned a B.A. in ecology and an M.A. in health and medical journalism from the University of Georgia and is now based in Atlanta. Irene previously worked as a business reporter at The Dallas Morning News.