PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VA (WRIC) — Valentin Zarco of Woodbridge doesn’t play the Virginia Lottery scratch game very often, but he clearly wins big when he does.
Zarco, who works as an auto mechanic, won the top prize of $100,000 after scratching a winning ticket to Crossword Connect 5X, according to the Virginia Lottery announcement.
“I couldn’t believe it!” Zarco said of his big win. He told Virginia Lottery officials he had no immediate plans for the money he won, other than paying the bills.
Crossword Connect scratch games offer top prizes ranging from $5 to $100,000. According to Virginia Lottery, Zarco was the first person to win money in this round. That means he has 5 more winning tickets that have not yet been claimed.
You have a 1 in 1,224,000 chance of winning the top prize in Crossword Connect, while the game has a 1 in 3.83 chance of winning the prize.
Prince William County received more than $62.2 million in the Virginia Lottery Fund for K-12 education last year, according to the Virginia Lottery. More than $779 million (about 10% of her federal K-12 school budget) was raised by the Virginia Lottery in the 2022 fiscal year.