Winner checked ticket at Washington’s Lottery machine at local Safeway, didn’t read the screen carefully…but double-take saved the day
Olympia, Wash. (May 7, 2021) – On May 1, the winning numbers for a $2.7 million Lotto jackpot were drawn and the winner, a construction worker from the Yakima Valley, didn’t know he had the winning ticket. The next morning, when he popped into the Sunnyside Safeway to buy a soda, he stopped at the Lottery vending machine to scan his ticket…and nearly missed out on the top prize.
“When you win a few bucks, the machine displays a message that asks if you want to reinvest your winnings and buy a new ticket, and when you do, you click ‘OK’ on the screen,” said the 25-year resident of the area. “So, I just clicked ‘OK’ and almost tossed the ticket in the trash…but then I thought that the screen had looked a little different, so I scanned it again and it said ‘Woo hoo!’ and told me to contact a Lottery office.”
The store’s cashier told him that prizes of more than $600 need to be claimed at a Lottery office, so he called his wife of 30 years on his way to work and said “Well, we won more than $600, so that’s cool. See you after work.”
It was only when he got home that night that he looked up the winning numbers and realized that he’d won $2.7 million.
“This certainly will make our retirement years quite a bit easier,” added the winner. “Thank goodness I did that double-take and scanned the ticket again.”
On Wednesday, the winner and his wife traveled to the Yakima Regional Office of Washington’s Lottery, which had re-opened that very day after being closed for nearly a year due to the pandemic, and claimed the big prize.
The winning ticket was sold at the Safeway store located at 613 S 6th St in Sunnyside.
Lotto is a draw game from Washington’s Lottery with drawings held three times per week. Tickets cost $1 each for two plays. For each play, players choose six numbers between 1 and 49. All Lotto jackpots begin at $1 million and keep growing until someone matches all six numbers to win.
About Washington’s Lottery: Since 1982, Washington’s Lottery has generated more than $4.5 billion to support important state programs including the Washington Opportunity Pathways Account, which provides grants to help college students statewide achieve their higher education dreams, and supports early childhood education learning programs. The state’s Lottery offers consumers several types of games, including Mega Millions, Powerball, Lotto, Hit 5, Match 4, Pick 3, Daily Keno and Scratch. For more information, visit www.walottery.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @walottery.
Keep it fun. Know your limit. Washington’s Lottery is an advocate for responsible gaming and collaborates with the Evergreen Council for Problem Gambling to provide resources for those in need. More information is available at www.walottery.com/Responsibility.
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Press Contact
Dan Miller (Curator on behalf of Washington’s Lottery)
E-mail: dan.miller@curatorpr.com