Woman accidentally buys Powerball ticket — and wins big. ‘Best mistake of my life’
A lottery player aiming for another jackpot hit the wrong button and bought a Powerball ticket by mistake in Virginia.
It paid off with a $1 million win.
Miriam Long had been hearing about the rising Mega Millions jackpot and went to a CVS in Blacksburg to play the game, the Virginia Lottery said in an April 3 news release.
Instead, she accidentally bought a Powerball ticket for the March 18 drawing with randomly generated numbers, according to the lottery organization.
Powerball player narrowly misses $656 million jackpot — but still wins big in Virginia
The Christianburg woman called it “the best mistake of my life.”
She narrowly missed the $656 million jackpot, but she matched five numbers to win $1 million, according to Powerball. No one matched all five white balls and the red Powerball, and the jackpot continued to climb.
“My heart was pounding,” she told lottery officials. “It’s overwhelming.”
The Mega Millions jackpot broke $800 million by the March 15 drawing before a player hit the $1.13 billion jackpot March 26.
The Powerball jackpot is expected to reach $1.09 billion in the April 3 drawing.
Blacksburg is in Montgomery County, about a 200-mile drive southwest of Richmond.
What to know about Powerball
To score a jackpot in the Powerball, a player must match all five white balls and the red Powerball.
The odds of scoring the jackpot prize are 1 in 292,201,338.
Tickets can be bought on the day of the drawing, but sales times and price vary by state.
Drawings are broadcast Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays at 10:59 p.m. ET and can be streamed online.
Powerball is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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