The chances of winning a lottery in the U.S. are at least one in 175 million, but this very lucky woman was able to hit that jackpot two times.
Constance Carpenito reportedly won a million dollars from the Massachusetts Lottery from a ticket she bought at the exact Stop & Shop retail store where she bought a winning lottery ticket in 1996 also worth a million dollars.
"She plans on using her winnings to make this Christmas an especially good one for her family," said a Massachusetts Lottery spokesperson Christian Teja.
But winning the two lotteries weren't all she had to show for her winning streak. Massachusetts Lottery added that Carpenito actually won thrice at the same grocery store. Aside from the two million dollars she won from lottery tickets, she won an additional $20,000 dollars.
She has also taken to playing the $10 million Diamond Millionaire instant game from the store, betting at least $20 for it every week.
Winners of state lotteries have two options when it comes to collecting their winnings. Lotto winnings can be collected by cash payout, wherein the winner is awarded the prize money with federal and income taxes already deducted.
The second option is annuity jackpot, where the winner opts for the prize money to be invested in different government securities. In return, the winner is given a certain amount of money every year for 26 years, about $380,000 a year for every million dollar jackpot (not including taxes).
For her winnings, Carpenito opted for the lump sum payout, the same as 90 percent of lottery winners over the years.
"There's no reason to believe that this is anything other than a coincidence," Teja said regarding Carpenito's seemingly too good to be true lucky streak. He said that the lottery tickets are randomly sent to more than 7,000 sellers all over the state and that no one knows where the winning tickets go.
Teja added that there are many policies and procedures the Massachusetts Lottery observe to ensure that integrity and security for the tickets are observed as much as possible.
Massachusetts Lottery said that Carpenito was able to hit the one in 693,000 chances in order to win her recent jackpot. The previous jackpot in 1996 had a one in 3,780,000 chances.
