Man claiming $600 lottery prize in Virginia learns his win was really much, much bigger
It was a good day for Jose Flores Velasquez. He was stopping by the Virginia lottery office to pick up what he thought was a $600 prize after scratching a lucky ticket.
But once he arrived, Velasquez was told that his ticket wasn’t worth anything close to $600, lottery officials said. It was worth far more.
Velasquez had scratched off a $1 million prize in the 20X the Money game from a ticket he bought at a Safeway supermarket in Annandale, according to a Sept. 6 news release.
The Annandale man stopped by the store to buy soft drinks after work and picked up the lottery ticket while there, he told lottery officials.
Velasquez had the choice of taking the prize all at once or receive it in payments over 30 years, according to the Virginia Lottery. He chose to cash out the lump sum and took home $759,878 after taxes, lottery officials said.
Now, Velasquez plans to use the winnings to support his family and possibly start a business, he told lottery officials.
The odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 1,754,400, according to the Virginia Lottery.
Annandale is about 15 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.
This story was originally published September 9, 2022 at 3:08 PM with the headline "Man claiming $600 lottery prize in Virginia learns his win was really much, much bigger."
