Team DailyPedia
What are the odds of winning a lottery twice in one drawing? 985,517.
A man from Massachusetts beats staggering odds and doubled down his lottery winnings.
A very lucky man, indeed.
Kenneth J. Stokes, from Norwood, received a phone call from Massachusetts Lottery notifying him that he has won the “Lucky For Life” draw, a state lottery that paid $25,000 a year. The lottery representative also said that there was another winner from Norwood.
After he hung up the phone, he then remembered that other lottery ticket he had, the one his family had also given him containing the same number combination that he had bought.
Stokes picked up the phone again, called back the lottery office and said, “I’m that guy in Norwood,” Christian Teja, director of communications at the Massachusetts Lottery said in an interview.
Teja told Huffpost, “This is a very unique occurrence for this type of a game. It is extremely rare for the same person to have two tickets with the same winning combination. People will typically play multiple sets of numbers to increase their chances of winning.” He added, “There are numerous people who have won $1 million on scratch tickets more than once, but this unlikely circumstance certainly puts it high on the list of the luckiest of all time.”
The winner chose to cash out his winnings amounting to $273,000 after tax or $546,000 in total, instead of receiving $25,000 a year for up to 20 years.
According to a press release from the Massachusetts Lottery, Stokes intends to pay for his son’s college tuition, help his daughter pay off her car, and take his family on vacation.
