PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — Valentin Zarco, of Woodbridge, doesn’t play Virginia Lottery scratcher games all that often, but when he does, he apparently wins big.
Zarco, who works as an auto mechanic, won the top prize of $100,000 after scratching a winning Crossword Connect 5X ticket, according to a release from Virginia Lottery.
“I didn’t believe it!” Zarco said about his big win. He told Virginia Lottery officials he does not have immediate plans for the money he won except to pay the bills.
The Crossword Connect scratcher game features prizes ranging from $5 to $100,000, the top prize. According to Virginia Lottery, Zarco was the first person in this round to win the top prize, which means there are five more winning tickets that have not been claimed yet.
The chances of winning the top prize in Crossword Connect are 1 in 1,224,000, while the chances of winning any prize in the game are 1 in 3.83.
Prince William County received more than $62.2 million in Virginia Lottery funds for K-12 education last fiscal year, according to Virginia Lottery. More than $779 million — approximately 10% of the commonwealth’s K-12 school budget — was raised by Virginia Lottery in Fiscal Year 2022.
