Couple beats 1-in-2-trillion odds with back-to-back lottery wins
By Kate Northrop
TOMS RIVER, N.J. — A New Jersey couple experienced a bout of deja vu when they made a familiar trip to the New Jersey Lottery to claim a $3 million prize just six months after winning $1 million.
A husband-and-wife team defied insurmountable odds by scooping a $3 million prize and finding themselves standing before Lottery officials for the second time in six months.
Winning the lottery once is tough enough — it might only happen once for most players who do manage to win. However, winning a $1 million prize on April 1 did not stop an anonymous New Jersey couple from trying again.
The pair was recently looking for a way to decompress after managing their busy lives with a 5-year-old and 11-month-old.
"With our kids, we can't really get out of the house," the husband told Lottery officials. "So, at the beginning of the month, we get some [scratch-off] tickets. When the kids go to bed, we scratch a few off. We like to make it a bit of a competition — who can win the most. It seems we at least always break even."
While at the Fischer Bay Exxon on Fischer Boulevard in Toms River, they purchased a $30 "Jackpot Millions" scratch-off ticket, one of the New Jersey Lottery's more recently released instant games. They were astonished to find that they beat the odds of approximately 1 in 2 million to win the game's first top prize of $3 million.
He was the one to scratch off the winning ticket, and suspicious that they might have won something, he handed it over to his wife for her to look at.
"I looked at it, held it to my chest and screamed," she recalled.
"Ten seconds later, she's laughing," her husband added. "This is perfect. Babe, we got luck on our side."
Five months pregnant and looking forward to her third child, she reflected on the moment they celebrated the second win together.
"Maybe we celebrated a bit too much," she added, patting her belly.
Their $1 million win from earlier this year had also stemmed from a $30 scratch-off game, "$1,000,000 Ultimate Spectacular," which they purchased in Ocean County. Those odds of winning were more than 1 in 1 million.
According to the Lottery, the combined odds of winning both top prizes are roughly 1 in 2 trillion.
"For comparison's sake, a player would be 1.2 million times more likely to be hit by a meteorite," the Lottery said in a press release.
"I've always said that you only need one ticket to win big," Lottery Director James Carey remarked. "But I guess, in this case two tickets certainly didn't hurt! This is just pure blind luck."
The winnings from both prizes will provide a softer financial cushion for their growing family, the couple shared.
There are two out of three top prizes of $3 million remaining in the $30 "Jackpot Millions" scratch-off game, which launched in October. All six second-tier prizes of $50,000 remain, as well as 53 out of 60 third-tier prizes of $10,000.
The overall odds of winning any prize in the game are 1 in 3.40.
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The 1 in 1.2 trillion odds means the probability of buying just two tickets, each of which is a massive winner. That is not what these people did. They bought lots of lottery tickets between the two big winners.
They are very lucky, but not quite 1 in 1.2 trillion lucky.
That's really cool, congrats and go for the Hat Trick
eh, even at how many tickets they probably purchased the probabiities are still significantly staggering
That's not how probabilities are calculated at all.
Just like MM & PB, each game has winning tickets with specific probabilities to that game. For scratch-offs it's # of printed tickets containing that prize amount divided by total number of tickets. And since these two games are not dependent, the combined odds is just multiplying the odds of winning each of those prizes individually.
For instance, the odds of someone winning both PB & MM jackpot would be 1 in 292M*290M.
Probability isn't calculated by how many tickets you purchase. It depends on how many tickets are printed for scratch-offs and combinations for online games. It's also why the odds don't change no matter how many people are playing a specific game.
No, the probability of scratching off two big winners, over the course of your play, is higher if you buy hundreds of tickets compared to buying just two.
I'm talking about the 1 in 1.2T odds mentioned in the article specifically which is independent of how much you play.
You can play a 100 or 1000 games, the odds above are not going to change since odds of winning those big prizes are calculated based solely on odds of each of those two games. On the other hand, the more you play the more chances you have of winning something which is common sense and you can't combine both.
I don't know how else to explain it further.
i would bet that when they won a million dollars six months ago they decided to "reinvest" a good chunk of that in scratch off purchases. there's actually a way to optimize buying scratchers. you look for games where all the top tier and most of the second tier prizes are unclaimed but a larger than expected number of the bottom prizes have been claimed. it doesn't happen often, but due to normal variance you will sometimes find scratch off games that have these optimal conditions. some people keep massive spreadsheets tracking them.
* Looks like your opinion is not liked JB, or is it because of that chain you wear around your torso that " sets matters straight. "😄
That makes no sense. If you buy 1000 PB tickets, your chances of winning go up to 1 in 3 million (assuming you pick different numbers on them).
Picking out the two big winners from a huge stack and then declaring the odds of that being the same as just two tickets is illogical.
I'm not concerned about your validation.
People disagree with us all the time but that doesn't mean we should care.
Once again, you haven't bothered to actually read what I said so there's no point in trying to explain it further.
Good day!
"A husband-and-wife team defied insurmountable odds "0
Apparently the odds were completely surmountable."
"That's not how probabilities are calculated at all.
That's exactly how odds are calculated.
"For instance, the odds of someone winning both PB & MM jackpot would be 1 in 292M*290M. "
That's the odds of winning both games if you buy only a single ticket for each game. If you buy 10 tickets for each game the probability of winning either is increased tenfold to 1 in 29.2 and 1 in 29 million. When you multiply them together (something you did get right) the probability of winning both games is increased by a factor of 100.
Of course once somebody wins a prize it's an absolute fact and there is no more probability for that prize. If you've already won MM the chance of winning both MM and PB by buying only a single PB ticket is "only" 1 in 290 million.
"the more you play the more chances you have of winning something which is common sense "
I agree that it should be common sense, but somehow it still eludes you even after Tucker gave you three hints.
"there's actually a way to optimize buying scratchers "
Aside from looking for games where unsold prizes increase the odds of each ticket you buy, each ticket is effectively cheaper if you itemize deductions and have gambling winnings that make the losing tickets deductible. If your taxable income puts you in the top marginal rate and your state has a top rate of 5% you're going to pay 42 cents of every extra dollar in state and federal taxes. If you spend another $1000 on tickets you get a $900 deduction. That will reduce your taxes by $378 so the $1000 you spent on tickets only cost you $622. Even without a reduction in the odds, if a scratch off game returns 60% to players your statistical loss on each $1000 you spend is only $22. That makes it sensible to devote some effort to find games where the remaining tickets have better odds and spend a few grand buying those remaining tickets. There's a decent upside and the downside is only $110 even if you spend $5000 on losing tickets. If you do spend $5000 you'll probably win enough to be at least slightly ahead even if you don't manage to find the big prize.
NJlottery scratch offs are a scam, they go to the same areas most the time.