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Marie Edwards bought a Virginia Lottery ticket during a trip to pick up a prescription at the McWhirt Loop store in Fredericksburg, and it ended up being the winning $1 Million Spectacular ticket.
It wasn't until she scratched the ticket the next day that the Stafford County woman discovered she had just won the game’s top prize.
“It feels fantastic and unbelievable!” she told Lottery officials as she claimed her prize.
Edwards had the choice of taking the full $1 million prize in annual installments over 30 years or a one-time cash option of $571,000 before taxes. She chose the cash option.
“It’s something you always hope will happen, but you don’t really think will happen,” she told Lottery officials.
The $1 Million Spectacular game features prizes ranging from $10 to $1,000,000. It’s one of dozens of scratcher games available from the Virginia Lottery. This is the second top prize claimed in the game, which means one more top prize is unclaimed. The chances of winning the top prize are 1 in 1,224,000. The chances of winning any prize in this game are 1 in 3.93.
All Virginia Lottery profits go to K-12 education in Virginia. Stafford County received more than $16.2 million in Lottery funds for K-12 education last fiscal year. In Fiscal Year 2023, the Lottery raised more than $867 million for K-12 education, making up approximately 10 percent of Virginia’s total K-12 school budget.
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