News writer; Opinion columnist
Have you ever screwed up so badly that you made yourself a millionaire? While the premise of the question may seem absurd, it's the reality for several lottery players who collected giant jackpots after their own or someone else's mistake.
From technical glitches to misprinted tickets, these big winners turned their bad luck into massive fortunes. The lottery is a game of chance, and sometimes bizarre things have to happen to give someone a chance to win big.
These are true stories of lottery players who turned small mistakes into million-dollar wins.
Bad listener
One of the most common complaints between married partners is that one person never listens to the other. A big fight is a typical consequence of not paying attention to your spouse; however, one New York man turned his lack of listening skills into a life-changing lottery jackpot.
New York resident Nancy Viola asked her husband, Vito, to purchase some Powerball tickets for a June 2016 drawing. The game featured a massive jackpot, and Nancy wanted to take her shot at collecting the super-sized prize. She told lottery officials:
Because the jackpot was $900 million. It was big. It was all everybody was talking about. He didn't listen.
While Nancy claims she gave her husband clear instructions to buy a Powerball ticket, he chose to buy a Mega Millions ticket instead. While Nancy was initially annoyed, she decided that it was better than nothing.
The next day, though, her annoyance turned to elation when she checked her ticket. She recalled:
I started with the Mega Ball. I checked all the other numbers. They all matched, and can you imagine what that was like? I thought I was having a heart attack. There was a little screaming.
It turns out that Vito’s Mega Millions ticket was worth $169 million, although the couple opted for the lump-sum payout and received a check for $64,796,160.
When asked how they planned to spend the money, Nancy said:
We want to let it all sink in. Anything is possible. Maybe a convertible. Everything is so new still. It has to just settle in, you know, see what happens. Buy a big house? Maybe in the future. It's a lot of money.
While they said they were holding off on making any big purchases in the short term, Vito applied for his retirement from the NYPD as soon as they collected the money.
“Lucky him,” quipped NYPD police commissioner Bill Bratton when asked about his officers' big win. And luckily, this time, he didn't want to listen to his wife.
Your mistake, my jackpot
It's often said that the key to success in life is to work smarter, not harder. Richard Hopper Sr learned this lesson in the best possible way when he stopped by his local Sunrise Sunset Party Store in Nile, Michigan, to buy a lottery ticket.
Hopper planned to buy a Mega Millions ticket, but the store clerk told him he had mistakenly printed a ticket for another customer who didn't want it and offered to sell it to him instead. Hopper figured that one set of numbers was as good as the next and agreed to take it. Hopper explained to Michigan Lottery officials:
When I stopped to buy my Mega Millions ticket, the clerk said he had accidentally printed an easy pick for another player who didn't want the ticket, and asked if I wanted to buy it or if I wanted another ticket. I decided to buy the ticket that had already been printed off, and boy, am I glad I did.
The next day, he checked his numbers and saw that the clerk had done him a massive favor.
"When I was looking at the winning numbers, I remember thinking 'boy, those look familiar,'” Hopper said. "At first, I thought I had won $100,000, and I was pleasantly surprised when I learned I had really won $1 million.”
He wanted to cash his ticket in right away, but because he had won on a weekend, the state lottery offices were closed, so he had to hold onto his million-dollar ticket for a couple of days:
Sitting on $1 million all weekend was nerve-racking. It was definitely the longest weekend I've ever had.
Fortunately, Hopper was able to keep his ticket safe, and he went to the lottery offices in Lansing as soon as they opened on Monday morning, where he collected his money alongside his son, Rich Hopper.
Hopper told officials he planned to use the money to pay his bills and keep the rest for a rainy day.
Paper, plastic, or millions?
It was a busy day at work for grocery store employee Michael Donnelly. He worked in customer service at Harris Teeter in Falls Church, Virginia, and was busy ringing up customers who were all buying Powerball tickets for a January 2016 drawing with a giant prize.
He was processing so many orders that, at one point, he accidentally hit the wrong button on the lottery machine, creating a Cash4Life ticket instead of the Powerball ticket his customer had asked for. Donnelly offered them the mistaken ticket anyway, but the customer said that they didn't want it. To make sure his register didn't come up short at the end of his shift, Donnelly decided to purchase the ticket for himself.
That mistake turned out to be the most profitable of his life, as he matched all six numbers in the January 7 Cash4Life drawing. When he brought the ticket to the state lottery office, officials told him he could choose between a one-time payout of $7 million or a $1,000 check every day for the rest of his life. On his financial advisor's advice, he selected the one-time payout.
“It still hasn't hit me yet,” he admitted to lottery officials while collecting his check.
The first person he called after learning he had won was his wife, who was overwhelmed by their sudden good fortune. “If that's true, you have to come home because I'm about to have a heart attack,” she told him when she learned the news.
As it turns out, Donnelly did a major service for his employer as well because the Harris Teeter store where he worked will receive $50,000 for selling a winning ticket.
Double your fun
A husband-and-wife lottery team, who have dubbed themselves “The Power Couple,” said their journey to millions began when the Powerball jackpot went over 10 figures in April 2024.
"I only play when it's over a billion dollars," the husband, who chose to remain anonymous, told lottery officials. He said the couple has a unique way of playing the lottery. When the jackpot is big enough for them to play, they take their old lottery tickets to a local retailer, scan them in the ticket terminal, and use the “replay” function to print new tickets with the same numbers for the current drawing.
Shortly after the drawing, the couple heard that the Annapolis 7-11, where they purchased their tickets, reported selling two million-dollar winners.
The husband realized he should check his ticket stash, and as he scanned each one, he found four with duplicate numbers, each worth $4.
He kept scanning and discovered one ticket that hit every white number but just missed the red power number, making it worth $1 million. The excited husband told officials:
We had our crying moment. Twenty minutes after that, when I put the ticket down, I went back to the other tickets.
They knew they had one of the million-dollar tickets from their 7-11, but was it possible they had both? His wife added:
He joked about it. He said, 'I still have tickets to go through. What if I have the second million-dollar ticket?'
The husband kept scanning, and sure enough, there it was: a second ticket with the exact same numbers, also worth $1 million.
"It was mind-blowing," the father of two said. "I had no idea I doubled it."
Currently experiencing technical difficulties
We've all experienced the frustrations of dealing with modern technology. Computers that crash in the middle of important work, printers that won't print, and WiFi connections that give out just when we most desperately need to be online.
While these tech fails usually lead to anger and a few four-letter words, for one Illinois man, it led to millions.
The winner's journey to riches began with a quick grocery run in August 2024. The man, who chose to remain anonymous, told lottery officials:
It was a normal day, just like any other. I was picking up groceries at Jewel, and on my way out the door, I decided to buy a lottery ticket.
He stopped by the lottery ticket vending machine, but it wouldn't sell him the game he wanted to buy.
"I actually wanted to buy a ticket for a different game, and the machine got stuck on Lotto," the winner continued. "I was a bit frustrated. I said, 'What is going on? The machine won't give me the right game!' So, I decided I may as well buy the Lotto ticket."
Despite his anger with the machine, he pocketed the Illinois Lotto ticket and went on with his day. The man recalled:
The morning after the drawing, I scanned the ticket at a machine to check if it was a winner. When the machine showed the $9.2 million prize amount, I couldn't believe it! I looked at my wife, and she was completely speechless. We are laughing over how angry I was at the broken machine – and we're so grateful for how it all turned out.
Maybe this will give him more patience the next time his laptop goes on the fritz.
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