Accidental Powerball Purchase Turns Into $2M Win For McLean Woman

MCLEAN, VA — Accidents happen, but sometimes the outcome turns out better than you'd expect. For one McLean resident, buying too many Powerball tickets turned into a $2 million win.

Betty Wong decided to buy online Powerball tickets when the jackpot reached $550 million. As someone who has subscribed to Mega Millions and Powerball for years, she usually buys one ticket for multiple draws. This time around, she accidentally bought 50 tickets for one draw on Jan. 13.

One of those tickets ended up carrying a $2 million prize. Wong's ticket matched the first five numbers and only missed the Powerball number. The winning numbers for the Jan. 13 drawing were 4-19-23-25-49, and the Powerball number was 14.

"I thought I misread the numbers, so I woke up my husband," Wong told Virginia Lottery officials about the win. Once she and her husband found out the ticket won, they were too excited to go to sleep.

Matching the first five numbers usually wins a $1 million prize. However, Wong spent an extra dollar for Power Play to double the prize to $2 million.

Powerball drawings are held at 10:59 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays. The chances of matching all six numbers to win the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, and the odds of winning any Powerball prize are 1 in 25.

Wong plans on using the winnings to take care of family.