It's strange to win a lottery jackpot. For one, the chances of winning is one in millions but some lotto ticket buyers still match their chosen number combination with the drawn numbers claim the cash prize. The lone winner of the P188 million Super Lotto 6/49 jackpot on Sunday did just that.
The case of a North Carolina woman who won the $501,444 jackpot of the Carolina Cash 5 lottery in the United States early this month was the result of a photo finish bet. Stephanie Israel, 39, of Guilford County, said she purchased the winning lottery ticket just four minutes before the close of placing of bets online and the draw, Fox News reported.
There have been some regular lotto bettors who kept using the same set of numbers and also eventually won. That's the case for some of the 433 winners of the P236 million Grand Lotto 6/55 jackpot that was drawn on 1 October.
Reports quoted one of the winners as saying that he had been betting on the drawn numbers 09-45-36-27-18-54 since the 1990s.
Even then, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, which conducts the lottery, was amazed because it was the first time that there were so many winners of one prize in a single draw. PCSO general manager Mel Robles denied any cheating though, stressing that there was no logic in a game of chance, according to reports.
The chance of one bettor winning the said jackpot is one in 28,989,675 as computed by a CNA commentarist. Assuming that 10 million of the said lotto tickets were bought, the commentarist said the chance of winning is an absurd one in one followed by 1,224 zeroes.
University of the Philippines mathematician Professor Guido David seconded the opinion. He and colleague Prof. Jomar Rabajante, however, both agree that 433 bettors winning is still possible.
In Ontario, Canada, a man from Milton won $1 million in the Lotto Max draw last 23 September. It shocked Antoine Beaini who won the same Maxmillions prize in August 2021.
"It was more shocking than the first win. I told my wife, and she was very happy!" Beaini said, according to CP24.
While it's hard to win a lottery jackpot, it's easy to lose such prize not only because many bettors' number combinations don't match the winning numbers.
A ticket for the Arizona Lottery's "The Pick" bought at a Safeway store several months ago matched the six drawn numbers of 9, 13, 18, 29, 32, 34 for the $4.3 million jackpot, Azfamily.com reported.
The unknown ticket holder, however, failed to claim the prize within the allowable period, causing it to expire this week.
Losing such a huge lottery prize by forfeiture is shockingly strange.