How many times in your life have you played the lottery? Powerball, Mega Millions, Lotto, Pick 3, Pick 4, scratchers, whatever… almost everyone at one time or another has decided to roll the metaphorical dice and plunk down a buck or two on a lottery game.
I mean, what can it hurt, right?
Sure, we all know the odds are ridiculously slanted against us actually winning any significant amount of money, but hey, it does happen so why not us?!
Related: Man Buys 20 Identical Lottery Tickets, Wins 20 Times, Leaves No Luck For Anyone Else
Plus, we are always hearing stories about people breaking the bank, sometimes more than once (in the same day), and sometimes even by accident.
Sadly, it is those rare instances which get all the publicity because who wants to read about the guy who just bought his 9,344th lottery ticket and for the 9,344th time failed to win anything over $10.
Related: Guy Buys 25 Identical Lottery Tickets For The Same Pick 4 Drawing, Wins 25 Times
Take Jeffrey Demarco of Vienna, Virginia for example.
Demarco decided to play the Sept. 12 Cash 5 day drawing while he was picking up groceries from the local Harris Teeter store, reports UPI.
Nothing out of the ordinary about that, right?
What wasn’t normal was the fact that, for some reason, Demarco purchased two identical tickets with the exact same set of numbers.
Even more unusual than that, both of his tickets matched that day’s winning numbers, 1-8-12-21-27, and he ended up snagging the drawing’s top prize of $100,000… TWICE.
Man wins two $100,000 jackpots from same lottery drawing https://t.co/b7XV0VW0zT
— Odd News from @UPI (@OddNewsUPI) September 24, 2020
“You see other people winning, but you never think it will happen to you,” Demarco told Virginia Lottery officials when he picked up his check.
And that, right there, ladies and gentlemen, are why so many of us are such suckers for the lottery. That and stories like the one below…
This Fairfax Lottery player woke up on her birthday "full of joy!" When her husband asked what scratcher she wanted as a present, she asked for a $30 Extreme Millions ticket – which turned out to be a $1 Million winner!! 🎂🎉https://t.co/qJCdJcbrCg
— Virginia Lottery (@VirginiaLottery) September 16, 2020
Why can’t that happen to us?!