Clerk prints wrong ticket for Virginia lottery player. Mistake pays off in a big way

Mark Black went into the Greenway Market in Roanoke to buy a lottery ticket.

Instead of the ticket he asked for, the clerk handed him a different one by mistake.

“Aww, let’s go ahead and take it,” Black told lottery officials.

The mistake paid off – big.

The $20 Print ‘n Play Dazzling Doubler Virginia Lottery ticket was the winner of a $250,000 prize, according to a July 6 release from the Virginia Lottery.

“It was pretty exciting,” Black told officials. “My hands started shaking.”

The odds of winning any prize in the game are 1 in 2.98, but the odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 480,000.

Black, a recent retiree, told officials he was going to use the money to move down the street.

Roanoke is about 165 miles west of Richmond.

Irene Wright

McClatchy DC

Irene Wright is a McClatchy Real-Time reporter. She earned a B.A. in ecology and an M.A. in health and medical journalism from the University of Georgia and is now based in Atlanta. Irene previously worked as a business reporter at The Dallas Morning News.