Sometimes that stogie can become a victory cigar when you add a Virginia Lottery scratch ticket to the purchase.
That’s what Sherod Hawkins of Palmyra found out when he bought his cigars and a Payday Bonu$ scratch ticket. He made the buy at the start of the weekend from the Crofton Plaza Fas Mart in Palmyra. He told the Virginia Lottery:
“I was in the store and I looked up and saw that ticket. I said ‘OK, let’s go ahead and get it.'”
Payday Bonu$ prizes range from $20 to $500,000. Hawkins came away with the top prize. He played his scratcher right there in the Fas Mart parking lot.
“I thought: ‘Wait a minute. This can’t be right,'” he said.
The Virginia Lottery says two more $500,000 Payday prizes haven’t been claimed yet. Hawkins had — and Virginia Lottery customers have — a 1-in-1,672,800 chance of winning.
How to play the Payday Bonu$ Virginia Lottery scratch ticket
This one is pretty easy. Each Payday Bonu$ scratcher has a grid of 20 squares. Each square has a set of numbers that looks like: 21|60 or 40|34. You win if the two numbers in the square match (21|21, for example). The prize amount is listed directly under the matching pair. The game features a 10x bonus as well.
We mentioned that Hawkins claimed the first of three $500,000 wins in the game. Here’s a breakdown of the prizes still left in Payday Bonu$ as of Aug. 29.
- $5,000 wins — 24 of 30 left
- $500 — 1,904 of 2,396 left
- $200 — 6,597 of 8,181 left
- $100 — 72,818 of 90,180 left
- $20 to $70 wins — 487,990 of 604,275 left
The overall odds of any win from your $10 ticket are 1-in-6.97.
Virginia Lottery products have generated more than $11 billion in K-12 public schools since 1999. The amount includes $779 million from the most recent fiscal year.
Lottery proceeds cover about 10% of Virginia’s education budget.
The Virginia Lottery scratchers range in price from $1 to $30.The Extreme Millions scratch game had the top possible scratch ticket prize at $10 million, but someone already claimed the winner.
