It was a little more than a year ago – July 1, 2020 – that the Virginia Lottery first began offering some of its games online.
The new way of playing the Lottery in Virginia has become such a hit that it has surpassed the $1 billion mark in prizes won by players.
In fewer than 16 months, more than 213,000 unique players have had more than 196 million wins playing at valottery.com.
That’s in addition to the tried-and-true way of playing the Lottery: at physical retail stores across the Commonwealth. Traditional sales at brick-and-mortar retailers still account for about 70 percent of total Lottery sales.
Many familiar Virginia Lottery games are available online, including Mega Millions, Powerball, Cash4Life, Pick 4 and Pick 3. In addition, players can try their hand at any one of dozens of instant-win games, available exclusively online.
The biggest online win so far is a McLean woman, who won $2 million playing Powerball. Three players each won $1,000 a week for life playing Cash4Life.
“Virginians have really taken to the convenience of playing the Lottery from their smartphones, tablets or computers,” said Virginia Lottery Executive Director Kevin Hall. “The Lottery is constantly looking for innovative and convenient ways to meet customer expectations while also providing lots of opportunities for our players to imagine the possibilities of a winning moment. Online lottery games continue to help support our mission of generating profits for K-12 education all across the Commonwealth.”
Anyone who is at least 18 years old and physically located in Virginia can play online by setting up an account at www.valottery.com. Customers must undergo robust identity and age verification checks before they can participate.
Nine of the 10 biggest online instant wins have come from progressive jackpot games, in which the jackpot continues to grow until a player wins the accumulated jackpot amount. The largest online instant win so far was an Aldie woman who won $209,149 playing the VIP Ultra game.
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AFP
