Mary Tuck was grocery shopping with her daughter at the Martin’s Food Market at 2035 East Market Street in Harrisonburg. They stopped by the Virginia Lottery Game Machine.
“This one looks good,” her daughter said, pointing to the Colossal Cash Scratcher ticket.
So, Ms. Tuck bought the ticket and took it home. When she scratched it, she couldn’t believe what she saw.
“I was numb,” the Rockingham woman later told Lottery officials. “I handed it to my daughter and said, ‘Do you see what I see?’”
She had just won the game’s $2 million top prize.
“I’m stunned. I haven’t wrapped my head around it yet,” she said as she claimed her prize later that day.
Colossal Cash is one of dozens of Scratchers available from the Virginia Lottery. It features prizes ranging from $20 to $2 million, including a $50,000 second prize. This is the first top prize claimed in the game, which means two $2 million top prizes remain unclaimed. The odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 1,020,000. The odds of winning any prize in this game are 1 in 3.21.
Ms. Tuck had the choice of taking the full $2 million prize in annual payments over 30 years, or a one-time cash-option of $1.28 million before taxes. She chose the cash option. The store receives a $10,000 bonus from the Lottery for selling the winning ticket.