Two Bay Area Friends Split Lottery Jackpot... Again!

The following was submitted for publication by the California Lottery:

You aren’t going to believe this story! Back in January, it was reported that there were two jackpot wins in the San Francisco Bay Area. Both wins were in the same SuperLotto Plus drawing. The top prize was $7 million so the two ticket-owners would split that amount, making each ticket worth $3.5 million apiece!

When two friends recently came in to the Lottery’s East Bay District Office to claim their prizes, the staff had no idea of the situation. As it turns out, these ladies are the two winners from the January 10 SuperLotto Plus draw …and they are indeed friends! They play the same numbers, which are a combination of their families’ birthdates and anniversaries, but they buy their tickets separately from their local retailers. So one winner, Cynthia Villanueva, bought her ticket in Richmond, near her home; and the other winner, Erlinda Ravelo, bought her ticket in Milpitas, where she always buys tickets.

To make this story even more unbelievable, this isn’t their first big win. They won another big prize in 2011 on the Mega Millions game. Again, playing the same numbers, they won a total of $466,000. They explained they have three sets of numbers and so far, they won Mega Millions in 2011 with their first set of numbers, then they just won SuperLotto Plus with their second set of numbers. So now all they have left is to win Powerball with their third set of numbers.

With their last big prize, they took a vacation together and plan to do the same this time, with a trip to Portugal. They also plan to each pay off their houses, help out their kids and donate to the favorite charity. Ravelo summed it up nicely by saying, “The more you give, the more you receive.”

Villanueva bought her ticket (again) at the Arco ampm located at 15531 San Pablo Avenue in Richmond (Contra Costa County). Ravelo bought her ticket (again) at the 7-Eleven located at 1838 Milmont Drive in Milpitas (Santa Clara County).

The winning numbers are: 1-5-30-16-24 and Mega number 7. Each winning retailer wins a $17,500 bonus just for selling a jackpot winning ticket.

(Image via Shutterstock)

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