Lighting strikes twice: How these lottery players won more than once

Most people dream of winning a million-dollar jackpot just once in their lifetime. Even fighting against incredible odds, they know the life-changing power of a seven-figure check.

So what does it mean when someone does the impossible twice and brings home two big prizes? Is there a secret to collecting multiple big wins?

State lotteries sell hundreds of millions of tickets every year, which means that even though most players walk away with nothing, some will win again and again. How is it that some people can play for decades and never cash in a ticket, while others can collect multiple million-dollar prizes in just a few weeks?

We broke down the stories of several different multiple lottery winners and tried to learn their secrets for cashing in big, multiple times.

Scratching to millions

Shelley Suttles didn't think his summer could get any better after he picked up a Cash 5 instant win ticket and scratched his way to a $100,000 prize. Little did he know that his big winning streak was just getting started.

Just a few months after winning his first lottery prize, the Bridgeport, Connecticut resident was out running a few errands when he decided on a whim to pick up an Ultimate 7s scratch game ticket at his local Grand Package Store.

In the lottery, it's rare for luck to strike even once, but when Suttles revealed his numbers, he instantly became a millionaire. Suttles told state lottery officials:

“I almost passed out. I scratched off the box and saw a million dollars. I've never seen a million dollars on a ticket before. I picked up the phone and told my sister, and she started screaming. She couldn't believe it either. I still don't believe it. I just don't believe that it happened. But it did.”

Suttles says that he plans to use the money to pay off his bills and donate to his church.

The odds of winning both within three months of each other are greater than being struck by lightning three times and then being bitten by a shark.

Our verdict: Suttles didn't need a grand plan or strategy to win twice. He just treated himself while running errands. Life is tough, so don't forget to do something fun for yourself once in a while; you never know when it will change your entire life.

Triple your luck

If winning twice is nice, what do we call it when someone wins three jackpots?

Calvin and Zatera Spencer's hot streak started on March 12, 2014, when they won $1,000,000 playing Powerball. Their odds of winning that prize were one in 5,153,633.

However, before they could even get used to the idea of becoming instant millionaires, lightning improbably struck twice, and less than two weeks later, they purchased ten tickets for the Virginia Lottery's Pick 4 drawing game. They put the exact numbers on every ticket: 6-6-6-6.

Improbably, these were the winning numbers for the March 26 drawing. Because each winning ticket was worth $5,000, the Hagertys cleaned up an additional $50,000 with their ten tickets.

The odds of this win were more respectable at a mere one in ten thousand. At this point, most players would take their winnings and walk away. However, the party still wasn't over for the Hagertys, who bought a Million Dollar Cash Extravaganza the very next day, and when they scratched it, learned that they won yet another million-dollar prize. This time their odds of winning were one in 863,000.

Taken together, the odds of winning all three prizes in just two weeks are approximately 1 in 44,480,839,790,000,000, which is 44.48 quadrillion. Their luck was so improbable that it blew the minds of even experienced lottery officials. Speaking with reporters, Virginia Lottery spokesman John Hagerty stated:

I've been here for 12 years, and this is the first time I've seen someone win three major prizes within such a short period of time.

While these odds are extraordinary, mathematician David Hand explains that they result from the law of large numbers, which states that the most improbable events are likely to occur with enough opportunities. In the case of the Hagertys, the hundreds of millions of lottery tickets sold every year in the US mean that it's statistically likely that an extremely unlikely event, such as winning three times in two weeks, will eventually occur.

While we'd hate to calculate the odds of the Hagertys winning for a fourth time, according to Virginia lottery officials, their only statement after collecting their latest prize was: “We're not finished yet.”

Our Verdict: The impossible is possible if given enough opportunities.

The accidental millionaire

We've all made mistakes, but have you ever screwed up so bad that you became a multi-millionaire? That's what happened to one lucky Massachusetts resident when he lost track of when the Powerball drawing was supposed to occur.

Paul Cochran is a frequent lottery player who purchased a ticket for the July 9, 2025, drawing. Somehow, he thought that the drawing for his ticket had already occurred, so he went to buy a new one with the same numbers: white balls 5, 9, 25, 28, 69, and red Powerball 5.

According to the Massachusetts Lottery, Corcoran initially bought a ticket for seven Powerball drawings and mistakenly thought the final drawing on that ticket had already occurred, leading him to purchase another multi-draw ticket that also included the July 9 drawing.

Now he had two tickets with the same numbers for one drawing, and he hit it big by matching all five white balls for the drawing, and he collected $2 million instead of $1 million because of his mistake.

Cochran told lottery officials he had no idea what he was going to do with the money, but “the win feels good.”

Our Verdict: As they say, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. It's impossible to control the outcome of a lottery, so put your faith in happy accidents and hope they work out for you.

Winners never quit

June 2025 was a good month for a North Carolina resident and lottery player, Jennifer Kleinendorst. First, she purchased a 2025 Multiply The Cash instant win ticket. While her ticket wasn't a winner, she didn't give up and entered her card into the second-chance drawing and won $250,000.

Her number was one of four drawn from a pool of 23 million total entries. After paying taxes, she received a $179,000 check.

Most people might take a step back from playing the lottery after that, but most people aren't Jennifer Kleinendorst. Instead, she chose to double down and keep playing, and just two months after her first big win, she purchased a $20 100X The Cash scratch-off ticket.

If she was happy with her first win, she might have done a backflip with her second win because she cashed her ticket in for a $2 million top prize. Once again, she chose the lump sum payout and received a check for $861,006.

Jennifer offered no comment on either of her big wins, but sometimes actions speak louder than words.

Our Verdict: Winners never quit, and quitters never win. Just because Jennifer didn't give up when her ticket was lost the first time, and she collected $250,000, and she kept playing and cashed another major prize.

Can't stop. Won't stop.

Christine Wilson went on one of the all-time lottery hot streaks in the winter and spring of 2024 when she scratched her way into being a multi-millionaire. Wilson's run began when she purchased a Lifetime Millions instant win ticket for $50 at Dub's Discount Liquors in Mansfield, Mass.

She uncovered her ticket and saw the symbols telling her that she had just won $1 million. However, just because she scored one big win didn't mean she stopped believing she could take home another.

In April 2024, only ten weeks after her first win, she purchased a 100X Cash instant win game for $10 from the Family Food Mart, also in Mansfield, Mass. She scratched away the covering and once again revealed a million-dollar prize. She took the lump sum for both prizes and collected checks for $650,000 each before paying taxes.

While Wilson did not issue a public statement about her wins, she did tell lottery officials that she used part of her first check to purchase a new SUV and that she plans to put her second check into savings.

Our Verdict: Maybe it pays to live in the North East if you want to win the lottery multiple times. If you look back, you'll see these winners live in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia, and we're not even counting the New York man who won $10 million twice.