Virginia Woman Hits $1 Million Lottery Jackpot — Her Second Win That Week: 'I'm in Shock' Jennifer Minton won $50,000 in mid-October, but that was just the start of her good fortune.
By Amanda Breen
Key Takeaways
- Lottery player Jennifer Minton won $50,000, and then won $1 million — in the same week.
- Winning the lottery multiple times isn't unheard-of, according to a Harvard statistician.
A Virginia woman just had a lucky streak of a lifetime.
Gloucester resident Jennifer Minton won $50,000 playing the Virginia Lottery's online Safari Quest game in mid-October, then hit a $1 million jackpot just one week later, lottery officials said.
Related: North Carolina Man Wins Lottery Twice After Accidentally Buying 2 Identical Tickets
Her lucky break came — for the second time — as she sat around a campfire and played the game on her mobile device. When the jackpot reset, it took her a moment to process that she was the winner, but the $912,936 displayed on her screen confirmed it.
"I'm in shock!" Minton told lottery officials about the win. "I'm in disbelief!"
Safari Quest, one of the games available on Virginia's Lottery app, costs between $.20 and $50 to play, with proceeds going to the state's public schools, per the outlet. Of the more than $867 million garnered this year, 10% has gone toward the school's budgets; the current jackpot sits at over $300,000.
Related: Maryland Man Wins Lottery Jackpot 15 Times on 15 Tickets
As unbelievable as winning the lottery multiple times might seem, it's happened before — and no doubt will again.
"If someone already wins the lottery, then the chance that the person wins the lottery a second time will be exactly the same as the probability they win the lottery if they had not previously won the lottery before," Harvard statistics professor Dr. Mark Glickman explained to CNBC Make It.
