You Can Win The Lottery Twice In These US States

Your odds of winning any lottery are, frankly, pretty depressing. According to the National Safety Council, the odds of losing your life by lightning strike is one in 186,978, while the next unlikely way to go — wasp, hornet, and bee stings — is around one in 46,744 in the U.S. However, your odds of winning $1 million is one in 11,688,054, and rises to one in 292 million when you get to the jackpot-level winnings. In October 2015, Powerball lowered everyone's odds of winning after adding more white balls to its machines — the odds used to be one in 175 million — while Mega Millions changed the rules to help ruin your chances in 2017, which, according to a Syracuse University math professor, leaves your chances at one in 302,575,350. All this makes the story of people winning millions in the lottery not once, but twice, even more unbelievable.

While you will often hear about people who won the lottery and ended up dead broke, you very rarely hear about people who win the lottery twice. You are probably very interested in knowing where that is most likely to happen. While location may not necessarily determine higher odds of winning, according to a Harvard statistics professor in a CNBC Make It article, purchasing multiple tickets and numbers can increase your chances by a little. Let's take a look at three states where Americans have proven you can win the lottery twice.

In 2019, Juan Hernandez of Uniondale, New York, won $10 million in a $350 million Cash Spectacular scratch-off ticket. Much like the Powerball or Mega Millions, achieving this even once wouldn't be an easy feat. Although that scratch ticket lottery doesn't appear to exist anymore, as per the New York Lottery, the odds of winning $5 million in the next highest $300 million scratch ticket is just over one in 5.1 million. After accepting a lump-sum of just over $6.5 million, you would think that would be the last we would see of Mr. Hernandez. However, fate had other plans. In 2022, Hernandez won another $10 million with a Deluxe scratch-off ticket which has odds of just over one in 3.5 million. Is it better to take a lump-sum payment or an annuity if you win the lottery? Hernandez chose another lump-sum payment on his second lottery win, so for him, the answer seems obvious.

He's not alone. New Yorker, Marco Accardo, bought two Mega Millions tickets from a convenience store in West Hempstead, New York. The draw for both took place on November 11, 2022 but at the time, the win went unclaimed. Fortunately for Accardo, nobody had to learn what happens to Mega Millions jackpots nobody claims. A year later, in November 2023, Accardo would claim a combined $2 million jackpot — $1 million dollars from each ticket — totaling just over $1.3 million after withholdings. So technically, he also won the lottery twice.

Gayla Guishard played the New Year's Millionaire Raffle in Virginia, at a store in her hometown of Smithfield. In February 2021, she became a $100,000 winner after a friend informed her of hearing a winning ticket was purchased at Darden's Country Store — where Guishard bought hers — and advised Guishard to check her tickets. An excited phone call to the Virginia Lottery office led to her win being confirmed by lottery officials. The odds of winning the $100,000 prize was one in 89,286. Then, in March 2024, Guishard became a second time winner where she would claim a $1 million jackpot from a scratch ticket.

The odds of winning on the million-dollar scratch ticket was one in 612,000, and this time she found out in the store where she purchased the ticket. The cries of joy coming out of the store drew the attention of customers both inside and outside, however, when asked, the second-time lottery winner and the store owners played it cool by staying quiet. While it's hard to believe, Guishard's ticket is only one of two top prize scratch ticket winners claimed, with another million dollar win left unclaimed. That's okay though, since nobody could expect one person to win the lottery twice, and that sort of makes up for the one unclaimed win. There are a few reasons why lottery winners don't always claim their prize immediately, but Guishard has obviously never been in that situation.