Winning: Lucky Virginians Collect Big Checks As VA Lottery Expands Online Offerings

Next month, the Virginia Lottery is expanding its online offerings, but players aren’t waiting to collect some big wins.

In just the last few days, we learned that VA Lottery players won:

• $1 million playing Mega Millions.
• $300,000 with a Print ‘n Play Rolling Jackpot ticket.
• $1,000 a week playing Cash4Life.

VA Lottery player holds $1 million ticket

You may want to check your pockets if you live near Floyd and shop at the Food Lion on West Main Street. A $1 million Mega Millions lottery ticket was sold at that location.

The winning numbers from the June 23 drawing were 6-20-37-40-48 and the Mega Ball was 15.

Matching the first five numbers results in a $1 million payday. The lucky ticket-holder only failed to match the Mega Ball. It was the only ticket in the nation to match five numbers in Tuesday’s drawing.

The winner has not come forward yet and has 180 days to do so. The Virginia Lottery advises the winner to sign the back of the ticket immediately. It establishes the winner’s claim to the ticket in case it is lost or stolen.

Without producing a winning jackpot ticket, the jackpot grew to $44 million for June 26’s drawing.

More lottery players collect big checks

Wanda Quesenberry, a Virginia realtor, kept a $332,986 Print ‘n Play Rolling Jackpot ticket in her safety deposit box for over a month.

She purchased the ticket from Circle K in Stuart on Jeb Stuart Highway. Eventually, she collected her ticket and cashed it to help pay for some home renovations and real estate investments.

“It feels great!” Quesenberry told the Virginia Lottery officials.

Do you know what else feels great? Knowing you are going to get a $1,000 paycheck per week for life.

That is Kenneth Reeves‘ new reality. Reeves purchased his winning Cash4Life ticket at Fourth Street Market in Wytheville.

Winning lottery tickets like these may become more frequent as the VA Lottery expands its offerings and begins selling online lottery tickets in the state.

VA Lottery online sales almost here

Today (July 1), lottery players will be able to purchase tickets online. Currently, only subscriptions, with a four-game minimum, to the Powerball and Mega Millions are sold online.

The expansion of offerings, approved earlier this year, will allow the online purchase of:

• Single Powerball and Mega Millions tickets
• Instant-win games
• Electronic versions of scratchers

Online tickets allow players to purchase tickets from their phones anytime. It’s convenient and allows them to avoid a stop at the local market to participate in some of the big jackpot drawings or get their scratch-it fix.

Retail sales will still be the lottery’s bread and butter, but online sales will bring in new players and increase revenue from existing ones.

Kevin Hall, the executive director of the Virginia Lottery, told WDBJ7 that he expects online sales to expand the lottery’s customer base.

“Retail will continue to be the core of our business, the traditional scratch ticket, but we think having an online sales channel will help make the Virginia Lottery relevant to a new and different type of customer who perhaps never gave it any thought previously.”