Mom who plays kids’ birthdays as lottery numbers scores big win. ‘I stopped breathing’

A mother had a “Thanksgiving to remember,” Ohio lottery officials said, when she found out she won a life-changing jackpot prize.

The woman purchased a Classic Lotto ticket in Reynoldsburg after work Nov. 27 ahead of that night’s drawing.

Her inspiration for the numbers she chose? Her children.

“I always play my kids’ birthdays, and I always play a couple random draws,” she said, according to an Ohio Lottery news release.

Those numbers — 1-5-15-34-37-40 — will now be remembered for more reasons, as they were the winning numbers in the Nov. 27 drawing. She learned of her win on Thanksgiving.

It awarded her an astounding jackpot prize of $19,421,370.

“I stopped breathing for a while,” she told lottery officials. “I sat there and held my breath for a very long time. It was quite a shock.”

The odds of hitting the jackpot in the Classic Lotto game are 1 in 13,983,816.

The mother said she plans to use her winnings to “pay bills, move from an apartment to a house and take care of her kids.”

Reynoldsburg is about a 15-mile drive east from Columbus.

This story was originally published December 5, 2024 at 9:11 AM with the headline "Mom who plays kids’ birthdays as lottery numbers scores big win. ‘I stopped breathing’."