Woman who won $2M in lottery during lunch kept it a secret from coworkers

A woman living in the U.S. state of Virginia won the $2 million grand prize in a lottery during her lunch break. However, instead of celebrating the huge win, she returned to work and continued her day as usual. This was reported by People.

The resident of the city of Portsmouth decided to try her luck after a hard day at work. For this purpose, she stopped by the Love Food Mart store in Norfolk and purchased a lottery ticket.

Shortly after, it turned out that the ticket brought her the $2 million grand prize. Nevertheless, the woman did not get overexcited and leave her job. Once her lunch break ended, she went right back to her workplace.

"I had to go back to work and act like nothing happened," she told lottery organizers.

The winner was given the choice of receiving the prize in installments over 30 years or taking a lump sum. The woman preferred the lump sum and became eligible to receive $952,000 before taxes.

In this lottery game, which started on September 1, two more $2 million grand prizes are still waiting for their owners. The odds of winning this main prize are 1 in 408,000. Meanwhile, the odds of winning any prize in the lottery at all are 1 in 3.48.

Despite becoming the owner of a massive jackpot, the woman chose to remain anonymous. This was made possible by a new law passed in Virginia this July.

According to the new rules, lottery winners can choose to remain anonymous if they wish. In such cases, the lottery organization cannot publish the winner's name, residential address, or prize amount without their written consent.

Previously in Virginia, such a privilege was granted only to winners of prizes exceeding $10 million. Now, lottery winners in the U.S. states of Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, and Oregon also have the opportunity to keep their identities secret.