Sometimes, a quick decision can lead to an unexpected win. Cynthia Howell, a Williamsburg resident, only wanted to place a bet on Virginia Lottery’s Mega Millions when she visited the Food Lion to purchase a ticket. Howell decided on impulse to purchase a Virginia Lottery Win for Life tickets, choosing family birthdays and anniversary as her numbers. After matching all six winning numbers, Howell became the seventh Win for Life top prize winner in the December 19 drawing.
It is easy to place a bet on the Virginia Lottery Win for Life. You simply need a playslip to select six numbers between 1 and 42 from a play area. Each game data bullseye costs $1. You can play up to 26 consecutive draws with the same number of tickets. To ensure you don’t miss a game, you can subscribe to the Win for Life program. A subscription can be used for 3, 6, and 12 months, or 26, 52, or 104 drawings. Single tickets can only be purchased at Virginia Lottery outlets. Subscriptions can be purchased online at Virginia Lottery.
Six winning numbers and a seventh Free Ball number are drawn during the online drawing. If your ticket matches six numbers, you win the grand prize. You can win $52,000 if you match five numbers and the Free Ball number. This is equivalent to $1,000 per week for a whole year. Consolation prizes can also be offered. They range from $600 to $2, depending on how many numbers have been matched and whether the winning numbers include the Free Ball number. To check if you have won, you can watch the live streaming video of the Virginia Lottery daily drawings online. You can also visit the Lottery’s Facebook and Twitter pages to check results. The results may also be published in your local newspaper.
For lesser prizes, you can also claim your prize at the Virginia Lottery Customer Service Centers, the Lottery Headquarters, and the Prize Zones located within lottery outlets. Your winning ticket can be sent to the Virginia Lottery Claims Office with your signed winning ticket. Subscribers will receive notification if they win the grand prize. If you have won smaller prizes, such as $30 to $52,000, a check will be sent within three weeks.
The Virginia Lottery website offers many ways to help you pick the right numbers for you to place a bet on the Win for Life games. It offers a random number generator, which randomly selects five sets of numbers ranging in size from 1 to 42. The site also offers an analysis of the number of times a number was drawn and when it was drawn last. You can also download a complete list with all winning Win for Life numbers to do your own analysis. These are only entertainment-only and each number has a theoretical equal chance of being selected, regardless of how often it was drawn previously.