Lottery prize left Virginia winner’s husband in disbelief. ‘I had to prove it to him’
A Virginia lottery player won a prize so big, it left her husband in disbelief.
“I showed my husband and he said, ‘That’s not real,’” Rachelle VanBuren told the Virginia Lottery. “I had to prove it to him.”
VanBuren’s $243,966 prize was the real deal, coming after she took a break one morning. She stopped enjoying her breakfast and instead turned her attention to an online jackpot game called Marvelous Money: Vegas Nights, lottery officials wrote in a Sept. 8 news release.
During her pause on breakfast, VanBuren tried her luck on the game — which has tickets that range from 20 cents to $50. It turns out, the ticket she bought beat the odds to win the six-figure jackpot prize.
“I was astonished,” VanBuren told officials.
Officials in their news release didn’t say how much VanBuren paid for her ticket or how much money she kept after taxes. She is from Hampton, near Norfolk.
It’s not the first time a lottery game has put a stop to someone’s breakfast plans. In North Carolina, a man was cooking sausages when he felt an urge to check the numbers on his lottery ticket, revealing a big prize, McClatchy News reported in September.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREWhen gambling is more than a game
Gambling is designed to be a source of entertainment.
If you or a loved one shows signs of gambling addiction, you can seek help by calling the national gambling hotline at 1-800-522-4700 or visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling website.
This story was originally published September 18, 2023 at 8:44 AM with the headline "Lottery prize left Virginia winner’s husband in disbelief. ‘I had to prove it to him’."
