A lucky man has become a multimillionaire after randomly buying lottery tickets while passing next to a vending machine.
Alexandr Pichshev from the city of Fairfax, in the US state of Virginia, said he was at the local Safeway supermarket at 3043 Nutley Street when he walked past a lottery vending machine.
Despite not having planned to buy any, he then followed a sudden gut feeling and bought a few of them, unaware that he was making a USD 5 million decision (GBP 4 million).
Just moments later while scratching one of them, reportedly a ‘USD 326,000,000 Fortune’ ticket, he was left in shock when he uncovered the giant prize.
Lucky Alexandr said in a statement obtained by Newsflash: “It was unexpected! I showed the ticket to the store manager, and he told me to sign the ticket.”
When collecting his prize at lottery headquarters on Wednesday, 25th October, he could choose between receiving the prize in annual payments over 30 years, or as a lump sum.
He took the lump sum and got USD 3.125 million (GBP 2.5) before taxes.
Virginia Lottery representatives said: “The ‘USD 326,000,000 Fortune’ game (game #2150) is an exciting scratcher from the Virginia Lottery.
“It features prizes ranging from USD 50 [GBP 40] up to USD 5 million [GBP 4 million].
“This is the second top prize claimed in the game, which means one more top prize remains.
“The chances of winning any prize in this game are 1 in 3.43.
“The chances of winning the USD 5 million [GBP 4 million] top prize are 1 in 2,774,400.
“All Virginia Lottery profits go to K-12 education in Virginia.
“Mr. Pichshev lives in Fairfax City, which received more than USD 383,000 [GBP 313,259] in Lottery funds for K-12 education last fiscal year.
“In Fiscal Year 2022, the Lottery raised more than USD 779 million [GBP 637 million] for K-12 education, making up approximately 10 percent of Virginia’s total K-12 school budget.”
