Winner uses special numbers inspired by the "day she got a second chance at life"

By Kate Northrop

Using numbers that hold special meaning, one Washington woman took home $180,000 in winnings with 18 Match 4 lottery tickets in one drawing.

A Washington resident won the Match 4 top prize 18 times in one day, bringing her total lottery haul to an astounding $180,000.

The unnamed woman explained to the Washington Lottery that the numbers she used come from a special place, and it's thanks to a specific combination of numbers that she multiplied her winnings by 18.

While many players take inspiration from family birthdays, anniversaries, and other important dates, this Yakima resident combined her birthday and the day she got "a second chance at life" to come up with her go-to set of numbers.

Prior to the drawing on Oct. 25, 2024, she visited Wray's Marketfresh Meadowbrook on West Nob Hill Road in Yakima. Usually, she would purchase Match 4 tickets throughout the day from multiple retailers, but this time, she switched up her routine and decided to buy 18 tickets at once.

This one small change of habit led her to win the $10,000 Match 4 top prize, bringing her total take-home to a whopping $180,000 in one drawing.

But before she found out about the win, she finished running some errands and picked her grandchildren up from school. Settling into her couch, she brought out her phone and checked the results.

She shrieked when she saw that her special number combination was drawn that night.

Her granddaughter heard the commotion and came into the room, so she double checked the numbers for her grandmother and confirmed that she did in fact win the game's top prize 18 times. The winner was in utter shock — she had forgotten that she had purchased 18 separate tickets with the same numbers.

The winning numbers were 2, 11, 23, and 24.

After recently claiming her prize at the Lottery's Tri-Cities Regional Office, she shared the news with her entire family, including relatives in the Philippines. She's planning on distributing her new fortune among her family members, she told the Lottery.

There was one other winner in the Oct. 25 Match 4 drawing, bringing the total number of winning tickets in the draw to 19. The odds of matching all four numbers in Match 4 are 1 in 10,600.

Match 4 is a Washington state lottery game. Players pick four numbers between 1 and 24. Tickets are $2 each. Match 4 drawings take place every day at 8:00 p.m. PST. Winning numbers for Match 4 are published on Lottery Post's Washington Lottery Results page minutes after each drawing.