WASHINGTON 鈥� 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 , 11 jackpots have been won in Maryland and nine won in Virginia since the first drawing took place in 2002.
When it comes to , 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.聽 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.
