Stockpiling lottery tickets might just be the new way to go to win a prize. A Virginia man was able to win $1 million from a drawing with a top prize of $5,000 by purchasing 200 identical tickets.
Ali Ghaemi of Alexandria was preparing to leave town and decided to splurge buying lotto tickets. He purchased 200 $1 tickets for the September 6, 2022, Pick 4 drawing. The catch was each of the tickets were identical, with the cards all bearing the numbers 0-2-6-5, which represents Ghaemi’s month and year of his birth.
Lucky for Ghaemi, his numbers came up in the drawing, earning him 200 $5,000 top prizes for a total of $1 million. The chances of matching all four Pick 4 numbers in the exact order are 1 in 10,000, making this feat pretty impressive.
Despite winning such a large amount, the retired real estate investor remained calm after discovering his big win. “I must tell you, I really haven’t hit the ceiling,” Ghaemi said. “I can’t tell you that I jumped up.”
The lucky tickets were purchased from the Safeway store at 1688 Anderson Road in McLean.