VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Four friends from Virginia Beach used their winnings collectively from previous years of gambling to win $1 million dollars in the Virginia Lottery.
For seven years, Dana Harris, Steven Hughes, Bradley Vaughn and Timothy Bateman have played the Virginia Lottery together. When they bought 20 tickets for the Virginia’s New Year’s Millionaire Raffle on January 1, one of the men, Dana Hariss, won the million dollars after buying the winning ticket at the 7-Eleven on 1900 Diamond Springs Road in Virginia Beach.
On January 3, all four men gathered at the store to collect each $250,000 (before taxes) from Virginia Lottery officials.
The 7-Eleven in which the men bought the winning ticket, also received $10,000 for selling the winning ticket.
The friends’ winning ticket was #332284.
When asked if they would continue to gamble, they said absolutely. The men said that they’ve already got their tickets for the next Mega Millions and Powerball drawings, according to the Virginia Lottery.
The winning ticket was bought in Virginia Beach, which received more than $26.6 million in lottery funds for K-12 education last fiscal year.
The other two top-prize winning tickets in the January 1 drawing were bought in Bedford and Stafford. Five additional tickets won $100,000 each. Those tickets were bought in Charlottesville, Leesburg, Ridgeway, South Hill and Virginia Beach. An additional 500 tickets each won $500.
