A Win For Life lottery player in Virginia has done exactly that, winning the top prize of $1,000 per week for the rest of his life. Rather bizarrely, Gadiel Luciano used the numbers on the rear view mirror of a 1992 Ford Taurus owned by his father as his selections, and they all came up when the draw took place on Saturday 12 April.
The Win For Life lottery is played in the states of Virginia, Georgia and Kentucky, and the game requires players to select 6 numbers from the range 1 to 42. If they match all six, as Gadiel did, they win $1,000 every week for life. The odds of doing this are 1 in 5,245,786. Draws take place every Wednesday and Saturday.
Gadiel is the twentieth player to win the top prize in the Win For Life game. The rules of the game state that the prize must run for a minimum of ten years, so if a player is unfortunate enough to pass away within that time, their next of kin would receive the payments. The good news for Gadiel is that he is just 25 years old, so if he lives to 75 Virginia Lottery officials say he can expect to receive a total of $2.5 million.
"I couldn't believe it could happen to me," Gadiel said. "To this day I can't believe it." He also said that the win will mean a lot to his family, and that he has no intention of giving up work because he loves his job. "My family helped me a lot," he said. "It's my turn to help them."
The lucky Win For Life ticket was bought from a 7 Eleven store in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and the store received a $10,000 prize of its own for selling the winning ticket.