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For more than a month, a Mega Millions ticket worth $3 million was in Melena Hill’s nightstand, and she didn’t realize it. Hill had bought the ticket for the Jan. 9 drawing using Easy Pick, allowing the computer to randomly select the six numbers on her ticket. When the winning numbers were drawn, she ended up matching the first five numbers and missed only the Mega Ball number. That would normally win her a $1 million prize. However, she spent an extra dollar for the Megaplier when she bought the ticket, tripling her prize to $3 million.
When Hill finally checked the winning numbers more than five weeks after the drawing and realized she had won big, it was an amazing moment for her. Her stomach had butterflies, and she screamed a little bit! She had bought the ticket at Murphy USA, located at 6261 College Drive in Suffolk. The winning numbers in the January 9 drawing were 12-15-32-33-53, and the Mega Ball number was 24. Mega Millions drawings are held Tuesday and Friday nights at 11 p.m. The odds of matching the first five numbers in Mega Millions are 1 in 12,607,306, while the odds of matching all six numbers to win the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.
All Virginia Lottery profits go to K-12 education in Virginia. Hill lives in Portsmouth, which received more than $16.4 million in Lottery funds for K-12 education last fiscal year. In Fiscal Year 2023, the Lottery raised more than $867 million for K-12 education, making up approximately 10 percent of Virginia’s total K-12 school budget. For a complete list of Lottery funds distributed to Virginia school districts, individuals can visit the Virginia Lottery’s Giving Back page. For general information or to play games online, they can visit the Virginia Lottery’s website or download the Lottery’s app. People can also connect with the Lottery on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube.