Best friends play Bank a Million together, split $1 million after taxes

Jennifer Molina and Lucinda Britt have been best friends for about ten years. The Norfolk women like to play the Virginia Lottery’s Bank a Million game together.

That partnership paid off when their ticket matched all six numbers in the August 13 drawing. The two split a prize of $1 million after taxes.

The ticket was actually bought by Ms. Britt’s brother for them (he also happens to be Ms. Molina’s fiancée). They selected a combination of family birthdays for numbers. The next day he checked the winning numbers.

“He started screaming, ‘We’ve got the numbers! We’ve got the numbers!’” Ms. Britt recalled. “I thought he was going to have a heart attack. I jumped off the bed and nearly did a cartwheel.”

On August 17, the two friends received their check from the Virginia Lottery. The winning numbers were 11-14-22-24-28-38.

The ticket was bought at Smoke Shack, 3038 Ballentine Boulevard in Norfolk. The store receives a $10,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.

Bank a Million is played exclusively in Virginia. The top prize is calculated so that winners actually receive $1 million after federal and state tax-withholdings. Drawings are Wednesdays and Saturdays at 11:00 p.m. The odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 3.8 million. The odds of winning any prize are 1 in 18.3.

When it comes to education, the Virginia Lottery is game.  In fact, it’s the reason we play.  We generate 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 nearly $534 million for Virginia’s public schools in Fiscal Year 2015. For more info, visit our website, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitterand check us out on YouTube. Please play responsibly.