By Kate Northrop
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — A South Carolina Lottery player is seeing double after winning two big Mega Millions prizes from tickets bought at the same store in two weeks.
An anonymous winner had a good reason to celebrate after raking in a $40,000 Mega Millions prize, but not even two full weeks later, he had a much bigger reason — another Mega Millions prize, this time worth $3 million.
The Grand Strand resident collected two significant prizes in the span of 11 days. He had bought his two winning tickets from the same store while on his routine visit to the Murphy USA gas station on Kings Road in Myrtle Beach.
After finishing his shopping trip at the nearby Walmart right across the parking lot, the double-lucky player will usually stop at this convenience store to fill up on gas and play the lottery. Having already won a $40,000 Mega Millions prize in the July 16, 2021 drawing, he felt extra lucky and bought another Mega Millions ticket for the July 26, 2021 drawing.
Turns out his lucky feeling was well placed — he walked away from that drawing with a $3 million prize.
"I couldn't believe it," he recalled when it dawned on him that he was a millionaire. "My family was shocked when I broke the news."
In both drawings, he was just one number away from winning the jackpot, but since the second win, he's less concerned with what could have been and more amazed at
"I asked the kids, 'What are the odds of this happening?'" he said in a press release.
The odds of winning $40,000 playing Mega Millions by matching four numbers and the Mega Ball are 1 in 931,001, while the odds of winning $3 million by matching five numbers are about 1 in 12.6 million.
For selling the two winning tickets, the Murphy USA retailer received two checks worth $400 and $30,000.
According to SCEL website, both winning tickets were QP's.
What a lucky person!
Each time he only misses the jackpot by one ball out of 6. First he goes in the store and buys a quick pick and hits 4 white balls and the mega ball. BAM ! .... 40,000 thousand big ones because he mega plays the ticket with an extra dollar. He then waits three more weeks, goes back to the same store and buys another QP ticket, this time hitting all 5 white balls and only missing the mega ball. Another BAM ! , but this time for $ 3,000,000 million dollars because he also mega played the ticket. Dang. How much luck can one individual just haphazardly fall into, especially in such a short amount of time at that ! ? ? ! Way to go my man, you must walk around with an angel on one shoulder and Lady Luck herself sittin' on the other at all times ! Too funny, definitely too weird and most definitely just way too good !!
That's just the way it goes sometimes Papi! It's very unusual but not unheard of to hit the lottery twice. It has been done before. I'm just glad he chose to get the megaplier in both instances or it would have just been 10,000 and 1 million dollar hits instead of 40,000 and 3 million which is a huge difference. Congrats to the winner! As I always say "in due time!" If it happened to him it can definitely happen for anyone of us!
That's true, S5Thomps. As a player, that's the way you have to always keep thinking, hoping and wishing.
* That's one lucky son of a gun!"
He must have a crystal ball to predict when the RNG was just right to buy those tickets.
Sort of like the five rights in patient care (right dose, right time, right patient...etc) only gets changed in Lotto land to right lottery, right store, right time.
He's smiling and Megaplier was his friend too.
He probably buys a lot more tickets than he's letting on. People who play more win more.
If you were interviewed for winning twice in quick sequence, would you admit to playing 50 lines a week, or would you act the innocent and say you just bought a single ticket both times. Nobody ever admits how much they really spend on these games.
Anyway, good for him and congrats and all that.
Congratulations
"People who play more win more."
Theoretically, that Statement is supposed to ring TRUE, but Statistically, the Data shows otherwise..in fact , just the opposite..
Which says that certain Communities are Redlined, Ticket terminals within those areas programmed to spit out worthless QPs..
I wouldn't think that to be necessarily true. Your run of the mill standard player might play 3-5 lines a drawing if they were happy with what the jackpot total is. I believe even the lowest jackpot which is what 20m, 40m, I forget is enough for anyone to win and survive with. Even that light play adds up though but players are way beyond being worried about admitting it. Your scratch card players are much, much worse and lose a lot more trying to buy the right ticket at the right store at the right time. To me that is the most difficult thing to do in lottery degeneracy. I also get a kick out of people who say you can never win a decent almost life changing amount twice. That has been disproven literally thousands of times.
The fact that he purchased both winning tickets at the same store is next level bizarre. I would not be surprised if the store owner used the guy's 2 wins as a marketing gimmick to drive more business to his store. It could work for a few months until people came to their senses and realized that it's not the store that's lucky.....it was the guy that's lucky.
I've heard of people winning twice.
One of the most unlucky lottery winners of all time, Jack Whittaker, actually won a $40,000 prize some time after his $314million win.
South Carolina is a free play state which means they have never sold a single losing ticket.
It makes sense to drop $10,000 in tickets knowing you'll win that money back in full at the very least.
Buying both winning tickets at the same store isn't so bizarre. I always buy my tickets at the same little c-store, and have for years. It's not I think the store is lucky, it's that I like and trust the owners.