A Portsmouth woman’s winning streak at Food Lion ended with a six-figure scratch-off prize and a week of excitement.
PORTSMOUTH, VA – A $30 lottery win turned into $50, then exploded into a $100,000 payday for a Portsmouth woman who kept trying her luck during a stop at her local Food Lion. Three winning tickets in succession transformed a small prize into a six-figure windfall.
The Virginia Lottery winner was playing at Food Lion, located at 5734 Churchland Boulevard in Portsmouth, when she first collected $30. Instead of stopping, she used those winnings to play again, collecting another $50 before purchasing a Set for Life scratch-off ticket that revealed the game’s $100,000 second prize.
The winning streak left the woman overwhelmed with excitement for days afterward. When she claimed her prize, she told Virginia Lottery officials she was still feeling the effects of the unexpected windfall.
Three Winning Tickets Turn a Grocery Store Stop Into $100K Payday
The winning streak began with a $30 prize at the Churchland Boulevard Food Lion.
The Portsmouth woman decided to use the money to purchase additional Virginia Lottery tickets, a decision that produced another $50 win.
She then reinvested some of those winnings in a Set for Life scratch-off ticket.
That third purchase delivered the biggest prize of the entire sequence: $100,000.
According to the Virginia Lottery, the ticket was a second-prize winner in the Set for Life game, which offers a $6 million top prize.
The experience was emotional for the winner, who described the excitement she felt while preparing to collect the money.
“I’ve been a nervous wreck for a week!” she told Lottery officials.
The announcement did not specify how much she spent on each individual ticket or the amount of her original purchase before the first $30 win.
Set for Life Scratch-Off Still Has $6 Million Top Prize Available
The Portsmouth woman’s $100,000 win came from the Virginia Lottery’s Set for Life scratch-off game.
The game offers a $6 million top prize, with additional prizes available at lower levels.
At the time of the Lottery’s announcement, one $6 million top prize and two $100,000 second prizes remained unclaimed.
The Lottery lists the odds of winning the $6 million top prize at 1 in 816,000.
The overall odds of winning any prize in the game are approximately 1 in 3.7.
Those odds apply to the game’s prize structure and do not mean that purchasing additional tickets guarantees a win.
For the Portsmouth woman, the $100,000 prize came after two smaller winning tickets during the same sequence of purchases.
Virginia Lottery Contributes Millions to Portsmouth Schools
All Virginia Lottery profits are directed toward K-12 public education in the Commonwealth.
According to the Lottery, Portsmouth received more than $22.2 million in lottery-generated education funding during the previous fiscal year.
Statewide, the Virginia Lottery reported contributing more than $914 million to K-12 education during fiscal year 2026, representing approximately 10% of Virginia’s total K-12 school budget.
Information about distributions to individual school districts is available through the Lottery’s Giving Back page.
The woman exercised her right under Virginia law to claim her prize anonymously, a standard option available to Virginia Lottery prize winners.
