Arlington Man's Purchase of Lottery Ticket Sees Big Payout

Cha-ching! An Arlington resident has won a large lottery prize. Here’s the scoop from the Virginia Lottery folks:

Robert Thomas of Arlington had to check every way he could before he could believe he’d actually won $100,000 in the Virginia Lottery’s Cash 5 game. He saw the numbers on TV; then he checked his cell phone. He saw that someone in Arlington had won in that drawing. And then he still had to check his ticket about seven more times.

There was no mistake. He matched all five numbers in the August 7 day drawing to win the game’s top prize.

He bought his winning ticket at Chanda Market, 5550 Columbia Pike in Arlington. He selected numbers that he’s been playing for a while: 5-6-13-16-24.

Cash 5 drawings are held daily at 1:59 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. The chances of winning the $100,000 top prize are 1 in 278,256.

Mr. Thomas said his winnings will go towards retirement and college, and his wife may have her eye on some jewelry.

The Virginia Lottery generates more than $1.4 million per day for Virginia’s K-12 public schools. Operating entirely on revenue from the sale of Lottery products, the Virginia Lottery generated more than $538.6 million for Virginia’s public schools in Fiscal Year 2014.

PHOTO courtesy of Virginia Lottery