US Couple Wins $2 Million After Accidentally Buying Duplicate Lottery Tickets

An Annapolis couple in Maryland is celebrating a windfall of $2 million after unknowingly purchasing two identical tickets for the same Powerball drawing.

The lucky streak began when the husband used the replay feature at a 7-Eleven to scan old lottery tickets for winners. This feature creates new tickets with the same numbers, but the man didn't realise some of his tickets already had matching numbers.

"I only play when it's over a billion dollars," he said.

When news broke that 7-Eleven had sold two $1 million winning tickets, the couple checked their stack. They discovered several $4 winning tickets, then a ticket matching the first five Powerball numbers for a cool $1 million.

"I looked at it, and I went to the Powerball site," he recalled. "I saw the numbers, and I said, 'No!'"

Elated, they shared a celebratory cry, but the good news wasn't over.

"We had our crying moment," he recalled. "Twenty minutes after that, when I put the ticket down, I went back to the other tickets."

The wife, remembering her husband's comment about having more tickets to check, jokingly asked if he might have the second million-dollar ticket as well.

"He joked about it," his wife recalled with a smile. "He said, 'I still have tickets to go through. What if I have the second million-dollar ticket?"

Incredibly, upon further inspection, they found another matching ticket, doubling their winnings to a staggering $2 million.

The overjoyed couple, who have chosen to remain anonymous, plan to invest their newfound fortune.

As per the lottery website, no one has hit the Powerball jackpot since January 1, when a $842.4 million winning ticket was sold in Michigan. Maryland has now sold six $1 million winning tickets in 2024, five of which came during the current jackpot roll, which started on Jan. 2. The other $1 million prize was won in the Jan. 1 drawing. The estimated jackpot annuity for the Saturday, April 6 drawing is $1.23 billion with an estimated cash value of $595.1 million (before taxes).