$10M Virginia Lottery Prize Comes From $30 Scratcher

MANASSAS, VA — A Haymarket man won $10 million, the largest prize awarded by the Virginia Lottery for a Scratcher ticket. The winning ticket was bought for $30 at a Shell gas station in Manassas.

After a week filled with clouds and rain in the Manassas area, the sun finally came out on Friday for Joseph Heaton to claim his huge Virginia Lottery Prize. The Shell gas station where Heaton bought his ticket is located at 7205 Sudley Road in Manassas.

After scratching the Extreme Millions ticket, Heaton walked up to the store owner with a smile on his face.

"A winner?" the owner asked. Heaton just smiled. The owner tried to guess the amount, but Heaton kept saying higher. He finally had to tell the owner the amount. "I couldn't believe it," Heaton said. "My head has been spinning ever since."

Heaton said the first person he contacted after learning he had won the $10 million prize was his accountant. He wanted to decide how to accept the prize: the full $10 million over 30 years or a one-time cash option of $6,570,302. Deaton, a middle-aged man, decided to go with the one-time payout. The payout from the lottery is scheduled to happen on Friday.

After learning about the big win, Heaton went shopping at Walmart and then went out for a celebratory dinner at Chick-fil-A. Heaton hasn't decided how he'll spend the money.

Heaton played the lottery every so often when he could afford it. His previous biggest prize in the lottery was $1,000.

Heaton drives a pickup truck now and doesn't intend on buying any new vehicles in the near future. He also plans to keep working for another three to five years at which time he'll consider retiring and whether to stay in Northern Virginia or move to the Carolinas or Georgia.

"It hasn't yet," Heaton said when asked whether the lottery win changes his timeline for retirement. "But maybe it hasn't sunk in yet either."

Heaton, who is divorced, said his daughter was extremely excited when he told her about the lottery prize money.

The Sudley Shell station receives a $50,000 bonus from the Virginia Lottery for selling the winning ticket. Michael Zhang, the owner of the Shell, said the largest amount someone had previously won in the Virginia Lottery at his store was $5,000.

Virginia Lottery plans to make a banner that will hang outside the Sudley Shell, letting passersby know that a lottery player won $10 million at the store.

A Winchester couple won a $239 million Mega Millions jackpot in 2004. Theirs remains the biggest prize ever awarded by the Virginia Lottery.

Heaton bought his winning ticket in Prince William County, which received more than $39.7 million in Lottery money for K-12 public education last fiscal year, according to the Virginia Lottery.

All Virginia Lottery profits are used for K-12 public education in Virginia. In fiscal year 2019, the Virginia Lottery had sales of more than $2.3 billion. Of this total, the Lottery generated nearly $650 million, or 28.3 percent of sales, for K-12 public education. This number represents about 10 percent of the state’s entire budget for education.

About 61 percent went back to players in the form of prizes, 5.6 percent went to the retailers who sell Virginia Lottery tickets, and 5 percent went to operational expenses.