The woman said she plans to put most of the prize money into her retirement fund.
To everyone's surprise, a Delaware woman has won not one but two lottery prizes in a week after seven years of trying her luck. The 70-year-old reportedly purchased the first ticket from Speedy Gas in Newark and won $100,000. After about a week, she visited Lottery Headquarters to claim the top prize with her best friend. On her way home, she decided to try her luck again and purchased three Serious Money tickets at a convenience store, reported CNN. Incredibly, one of the tickets turned out to be a $300,000 top-prize winner.
A Delaware woman is proving she may be one of the luckiest people in Delaware after not one, but two, big lottery wins.🥳😊https://t.co/V62LAifCDB
— ABC 13 News - WSET (@ABC13News) November 8, 2022
"When I scratched the $300,000 winning SERIOUS MONEY ticket later in the day, we just sat there in disbelief. It was absolute insanity," the woman—who wished to remain anonymous—said in a press release by Delaware Lottery. She and her friend soon returned to Lottery Headquarters to claim her $300,000 top prize, making her total winnings for the day $400,000 and October 20 was the day that changed her life, according to the statement.
In the press release, Helene Keeley, Acting Director of the Delaware Lottery, congratulated the woman for the double win. "It's great to see our players bring home six-figure prizes, and Instant Games continue to surprise and delight players throughout the state," Keeley said. According to The Washington Post, Delaware is one of only a handful of states with laws that allow winners to remain anonymous.
(CNN):A #Delaware woman claimed $100,000 in the lottery -- then on her way home she won $300,000 more : The only thing better than winning the lottery is claiming two lottery prizes in one day. .. https://t.co/7kZ7OXwW8G
— NewsOnePlace.com (@newsoneplace) November 6, 2022
The woman revealed that she plans to put most of the prize money into her retirement fund. When asked if there was anything else she wanted to share about her win, the woman said, "Just that I love scratching Instant Game tickets!"
According to the Delaware Lottery, the chances of winning the $100,000 "Instant Game" prize are just one in 120,000 and the chances of winning the $3,00,000 prize in the "Serious Money" game are 1 in 150,000. While most places in the US tax lottery winnings like regular income, Delaware is an exception. Lottery winnings are not subject to the state income tax of 6.6%. According to The Guardian, Delaware officials revealed that their lottery has contributed nearly $6 billion to the state's general fund, which finances many public services.
It is reported that lottery players around the country have been frantically buying Powerball tickets in recent days, one of the largest jackpot lottery games in the US. It recently reached a record of $1.9 billion value, marking the second time it has reached a 10-digit number. This is not the first time that a person has won two lottery tickets. In 2021, a woman named Susan Fitton, 64, won $4 million from two Mega Million tickets in the same drawing. In September, the Iowa lottery reported that a woman named Mary Starks won two $100,000 prizes in a span of more than two years.
References:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/06/us/delaware-lottery-two-prizes-trnd/index.html
https://www.delottery.com/Media-Center/Press-Releases/2022/10/26
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/07/double-lottery-win-delaware/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/07/delaware-lottery-winner-scratch-offs
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Tetra Images
