Virginia woman defies odds, wins second six-figure lottery prize

A lucky woman in Virginia scored her second six-figure prize from the lottery for the last few years, proving the popular saying that lightning never strikes twice in the same place wrong.

Alexandria woman wins $100,000 from Powerball

On Tuesday, the Virginia Lottery uncovered details regarding the fortunate winner, an Alexandria woman called Jennifer Helfman.

The lucky lottery player tried her luck by purchasing a ticket for Powerball, the popular lottery game that is available across the country.

To the surprise of Helfman, she scored a hefty six-figure prize after matching several winning numbers from the Powerball drawing on December 7, 2024.

The drawing in question saw winning numbers 1-31-43-55-57 drawn, along with the Powerball number 22.

While Helfman missed the game's top prize, she matched correctly the first four winning numbers along with the Powerball number.

Usually, matching four winning numbers along with the Powerball number would've granted a prize of $50,000.

But that wasn't the case for Helfman, who paid an extra $1 for Powerball's Power Play option.

This feature, which multiplies the non-jackpot prizes, granted the lucky winner a doubled prize of $100,000 instead of the standard $50,000.

Helfman recently visited the Virginia Lottery headquarters to claim her prize.

In an interview with Lottery officials, she said about the win: "It feels wonderful!"

What's amazing in the Alexandria woman's case is that this isn't the first six-figure win she has won in her life.

Back in 2022, Helfman was surprised by a $399,392 prize after playing the Lottery's Savannah Adventures online game.

Similarly to the win from 2022, the $100,000 prize she won from Powerball was also completed after she purchased a ticket for the game online.

Besides Powerball, the Virginia Lottery offers a range of drawing games, including instant titles that are available to play only online.

Powerball's grand prize stands at $31m

Available across the country, Powerball is a popular lottery game with drawings taking place every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.

The odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 292.2m, but the overall odds of winning any prize from Powerball are 1 in 25.

At the time of writing, the estimated jackpot from Powerball is at $31m. The cash value of the grand prize is $13.8m.

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