WASHINGTON — As lottery fever sizzles over a new record-setting Mega Millions jackpot and a whopper of a Powerball prize, you should know that the D.C. region has produced some massive lottery winners in recent years.
In the history of Mega Millions, 11 jackpots have been won in Maryland and nine won in Virginia since the first drawing took place in 2002.
When it comes to Powerball, Maryland has counted two winners and Virginia has had one since the game was introduced to those states in 2010.
A Winchester couple, J.R. and Peggy Triplett, won a $239 million dollar Mega Millions jackpot in 2004 and took the cash option of more than $141 million. Theirs remains the biggest prize ever awarded by the Virginia Lottery.
Three friends in Baltimore County who identified themselves publicly only as “The Three Amigos”, landed over $218 million in 2012 when they shared a then-record Mega Millions jackpot of $656 million with winners in Illinois and Kansas. The Maryland trio went for the cash option of $158 million.
The Commonwealth’s only Powerball jackpot winners hit a $217 million pot in 2013. Dave Honeywell of Fredericksburg bought his ticket at Richmond International Airport before leaving on a business trip. He and his wife chose the cash option of more than $136 million.
An anonymous Mega Millions player who bought a ticket in La Plata, Maryland, in 2014, won a $207 million jackpot. The drawing was worth $414 million, but a Florida couple also had a winning ticket, so the pot was split.
And in 2009, Steve Williams of Shenandoah, Virginia, won a Mega Millions jackpot worth a cool $200 million.
Powerball tickets have been sold in the District since the game was launched in 1992, and in 2009, someone who bought a ticket in the city won a $144 million jackpot. It remains the biggest prize the D.C. Lottery has ever awarded. The winner — an 82-year-old, lifelong D.C. resident — chose to remain anonymous, and chose the cash option which added up to more than $79 million.
