A diner in Massachusetts has defied all laws of probability and logic. For the fourth time since March 2024, the Old South Diner in Nantucket has sold a customer a million-dollar scratch-off lottery ticket.
Yancy Contreras Menjivar, who lives on the island, won a $2 million scratch ticket on Wednesday. It was the grand prize in the state lottery’s new $2,000,000 Stacked instant ticket game.
According to the Nantucket Current, she said she intends to save her earnings after selecting the cash option and receiving a one-time payment of $1.3 million (before taxes). For selling the lucky ticket, the Old South Diner gets a $20,000 bonus.
How is it possible for one location to sell so many winning million-dollar lottery tickets?
On March 11, 2024, Boston resident Jose Fontanez won a $1 million jackpot on a $10 scratch-off ticket, sparking the lucky streak at the Old South Diner.
On June 10, 2024, Garen Downie of Hyannis won a $2 million prize on a $50 scratch-off ticket playing Lifetime Millions.
Then, on August 20, 2024, island resident Sean Durnin won an another $1 million prize on a $20 ticket playing the $10,000,000 Bonanza game.
“The more tickets a store sells, the more likely they are to have a big winner,” Rachel Guerra, the Massachusetts Lottery’s deputy director of communications, told the Current. “Old South Diner has consistently been among the top 10 percent of agents in recent years. Several other locations have had multiple prizes of $1 million or more in a short span of time, including Silk’s Variety located in Sheffield (three in 2024), Pride Station in East Longmeadow (two in 2024) and Ted’s Stateline Mobil located in Methuen (two in 2022).”
Big-time lottery winners often defy all logic
“Some people have all the luck” is more than just a saying. In November 2025, a couple who live in Ocean County, New Jersey, won a $3 million lottery prize less than 6 months after they won $1 million in another lottery drawing.
A few months before that, a man in North Carolina won a $1 million prize playing the lottery four years after winning a $2 million lottery jackpot.
And a few months prior to that, a woman in Massachusetts, who won a $1 million prize on a Massachusetts State Lottery instant ticket in February, won another million dollars playing a different instant ticket game in May.