We know by now that multiple lottery wins is more common than we’d think. But we’ve never heard of a second win while waiting to claim the prize for the first. Well, that’s exactly what happened to a man from Oregon earlier this month. Sam Hawley from Portland was on his way to claim his first prize of $1,750 (about £1,300). When he arrived, he discovered that the office was not due to open until 8:30 in the morning. So he visited a grocery store across the street to buy another ticket. Remarkably, he used the same numbers on the Keno 8 Spot lottery game that he’d used in the first.
Second Win While Waiting… But How Much?
The prize for the first win was modest. But the second win while waiting to claim the first was larger – much larger in fact. Mister Hawley’s second ticket bagged him $118,000 (around £93,000). This was broken down as a $93k rollover jackpot along with a $25k bonus for matching all the numbers correctly. If he’d arrived in time to collect his winnings from the first, he would never have gone to the store. Subsequently, he would never have won his second prize. He was able to claim both together, killing two birds with one stone.
It’s not quite so unusual, perhaps. In a world where millions of people play the various lotteries every week, we can expect unusual results such as this. We don’t know how Sam Hawley is going to spend his winnings. We imagine he can’t quite believe his good fortune in turning up so early! This is not the most unusual set of wins. There have been plenty of doubles and quite a few triple lottery wins too, including some here in the UK. In 2012, the Harpers of Birmingham won their third lottery jackpot, perhaps the best known example.