Alexandria Man Scores 200 Top Prizes To Win $1 Million In McLean

MCLEAN, VA — When you play the Pick 4 game in the Virginia lottery, the most you can win is the $5,000 top prize. But for one Alexandria man, that prize multiplied into $1 million by playing the game 200 times.

Ali Ghaemi scored the top prize of $5,000 with his winning four-digit combination of 0-2-6-5. Since he bought 200 plays in the Sept. 6 drawing, each $5,000 prize made his total winnings $1 million.

Ghaemi, a retired real estate investor, bought his winning tickets at the Safeway at 1688 Anderson Road in McLean.

So why did he decide to buy 200 of the same ticket? Ghaemi told Virginia Lottery officials he decided to splurge before leaving town.

Each Pick 4 ticket costs $1, so the $200 Ghaemi spent on tickets paled in comparison to his seven-figure prize.

The chances of choosing the winning Pick 4 numbers in the exact order are 1 in 10,000. The Virginia Lottery's Pick 4 drawings are held daily at 1:59 p.m. and 11 p.m.