PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Two Hampton Roads residents are celebrating following their combined almost $300,000 lottery winnings last month.
“I had to put my glasses on. I had to keep looking at it” said Ralph Ellis, one of the winners. After buying a Lucky Break scratch-off ticket in Hampton, he learned he won the ticket’s $170,000 top prize.
Ellis’ chance of winning that prize is nearly 1 in 1,530,000.
“I haven’t let it all out yet,” he told Lottery officials. “I’ll probably let it all out soon!”
Karen Hunter from the Eastern Shore had a similar reaction when she won $125,000 through the Cash 5 with EZ Match game.
“I looked at it ten or fifteen times,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it!”
In order to win, she had to correctly match all five numbers on the ticket. The odds of doing that are 1 in 749,398.
The Virginia Lottery was authorized in 1987 and provides more than $1.6 million per day for Virginia’s K-12 public schools.