A lucky occurrence hundreds of miles from home
By Kate Northrop
LAMBSBURG, Va. — A truck driver from Wisconsin was on his regular route through Virginia when he stopped and landed the "big one" — a $1 million prize in the lottery.
A Wisconsin truck driver's route was anything but regular last week when he won a $1 million lottery prize during a routine stop.
Driving through Virginia is very familiar to Patrick Golz, who frequents the state while working as a truck driver. One day, he stopped for gas at the Love's Travel Stop off I-77 in Lambsburg.
There, he purchased two scratch-off tickets for the $50 "$1,000,000 Gold Rush" game. He didn't win anything to write home about on the first ticket, but the second ticket was a different story.
"You never think you're going to hit the big one!" he told the Virginia Lottery.
Golz uncovered the game's $1 million top prize, making him the second top prize winner in the game.
He visited Lottery offices and was met with a choice: take the full $1 million in annual payments over 30 years or a one-time cash option of $500,000 before taxes. Golz opted for the annuity.
For selling the winning ticket, the retailer receives a $10,000 bonus from the Lottery.
With Golz having officially claimed his million-dollar prize, three out of five top prizes of $1 million remain. There are also seven out of ten second-tier prizes of $50,000 and 31 out of 40 third-tier prizes of $10,000 left to win in the game, which launched in November 2024.
The overall odds of winning any prize in the game are 1 in 3.55.
Top prize for a 50.00 scratch ticket is only one million and now they want you to take it over 30 years. Of course no one would do that but the 500k cash seems rather low to me. Shouldn't it be 670k with taxes knocking it down to around 460k. I would think twice about playing the Virginia lottery. Actually wouldn't have to think twice about it.
Actually the Virginia lottery has four $50 scratch-offs with different amounts for the top prize. It just depends on what top prize one is willing to accept for the price of the ticket.
500X The Money = top prize 7M
$326,000,000 Fortune= top prize 5M
Gold Rush= top prize 1M -- This is the one the guy purchased
Cash Surge= top prize 10K
Maryland has a $10 scratch-off with the top prize being $200. As you can imagine very few people buy this one.
I am so happy for Patrick. That is a decent win.
I would really struggle to dish out $50 for a single ticket, let's not even talk about getting two of them 😭
But, should I win tonight's PB jackpot, I would spend $100 every day on different games.
That would be $36,500 a year, not a bad dent 🙊
Now how about I get my PB ticket 🤣
Congrats Patrick, you can trade you truck in for a mobile home and see the Country at your leisure.
Patrick opted for the 30 year annuity payment which comes in at $33,333 a year before taxes.
After taxes am not sure that would be enough to do that, but if it is that would be awesome 👍
Full disclosure - I am not yet buying $100 worth of lottery tickets a day because I did not win anything last night 🤣
Onward we go.
really I did same thing nothing waste my money
Good for him. But now he has to pay Virginia and Wisconsin taxes!
Offsetting credits and no double state taxation.
I agree! When I won $1,000,000 on 500X the Cash in Florida, the lump sum payout was $820,000.00 and after taxes it was about $475,000.
Now when you hit a $1,000,000 the lump sum on the new tickets are $640,000.00 and minus taxes will net you about $370,000.