Multiple Lottery Winners: 15 Who Beat Odds Twice or More

They say lightning never strikes the same place twice – but tell that to the lottery winners who’ve defied astronomical odds to claim major jackpots multiple times. From a Texas mathematician who won four times to a Florida man who scored seven grand prizes, these remarkable stories challenge everything we think we know about probability and luck. What separates these serial winners from millions of regular players, and is there actually a method behind their seemingly impossible success?

Can You Actually Win the Lottery More Than Once?

Winning the lottery once seems like a statistical miracle. However, winning it twice – or even more times – appears to defy every logical expectation. Yet, remarkably, it happens more often than you might think. While the odds remain astronomically low, several verified cases exist of players who’ve struck gold multiple times, sparking endless debate about luck, strategy, and mathematical possibility.

The most intriguing question isn’t whether multiple wins are possible – they clearly are – but rather how these serial winners managed to beat odds that would make professional statisticians shake their heads in disbelief.

What Are the Real Odds of Winning Twice?

Before diving into the fascinating stories, let’s address the elephant in the room: the mathematics. According to Harvard statistics professor Dr. Mark Glickman, winning the lottery once doesn’t change your odds for future draws. Each drawing remains an independent event with the same probability as before.

However, the odds of the same person winning major jackpots multiple times reach mind-boggling levels. Consider these verified calculations:

Winning two $1 million scratch-offs: Approximately 1 in several trillion
Winning both Fantasy 5 and SuperLotto Plus on the same day: 1 in 23 trillion
Winning four major jackpots like Joan Ginther: 1 in 18 septillion (that’s 18 followed by 24 zeros)

Despite these staggering figures, statistics professors point out an important caveat: when you consider millions of regular lottery players across decades, someone somewhere beating these odds becomes statistically inevitable. As one University of North Carolina professor noted, “This is rare, but not impossibly rare.”

The Most Famous Multiple Winners: Verified Cases

Joan Ginther: The Four-Time Texas Champion

Perhaps the most legendary repeat winner in lottery history, Joan Ginther won an astonishing four jackpots between 1993 and 2010, totaling over $20.4 million. Her wins included:

1993: $5.4 million on Lotto Texas
2006: $2 million on Holiday Millionaire scratch-off
2008: $3 million on Millions and Millions scratch-off
2010: $10 million on Extreme Payout scratch-off

What makes Ginther’s story particularly intriguing is her background: she held a Ph.D. in statistics from Stanford University. Three of her winning tickets were purchased in the small town of Bishop, Texas, specifically at Times Market convenience store. This pattern sparked widespread speculation about whether she had somehow “cracked the code.”

Investigative reports suggested Ginther may have spent approximately $3.3 million on tickets over the years, analyzing shipment patterns and remaining prizes to target games with the best remaining odds. However, no evidence of wrongdoing was ever found by lottery officials or investigators.

Richard Lustig: The Seven-Time Florida Winner

Richard Lustig became famous not just for winning seven lottery grand prizes between 1993 and 2010, but for turning his success into a method he shared with others. His total verified winnings exceeded $1 million, with his largest single prize being $842,152.

Lustig’s approach was methodical rather than lucky. He advocated for:

Never using quick-pick numbers
Consistently playing the same numbers
Reinvesting winnings into more tickets
Setting strict budgets to avoid financial trouble
Using sequential numbers to reduce prize-splitting

Importantly, Lustig spent about 25 years developing his system, treating lottery play like a full-time investment strategy. He passed away in 2018, but his book remains popular among lottery enthusiasts despite financial experts questioning the mathematical validity of his methods.

Juan Hernandez: New York’s Double $10 Million Man

In one of the most remarkable coincidences in lottery history, Juan Hernandez won the $10 million prize on New York’s $10 million deluxe scratch-off game not once, but twice. Each win came with a lump-sum payout of $6,510,000 after taxes.

Both winning tickets were purchased from the same convenience store in Brooklyn, with odds of approximately 1 in 3.5 million for each game. The probability of the same person winning both defies easy calculation.

Calvin and Zatera Spencer: Virginia’s Power Couple

The Spencer couple enjoyed an extraordinary winning streak during a single month in 2014:

March 12, 2014: $1 million Powerball prize
March 26, 2014: $50,000 on Pick 4
March 27, 2014: $1 million on a scratch-off ticket

As if that weren’t enough, the couple struck again in 2017 with a $100,000 Cash 5 prize. Their approach? They simply kept playing, with Calvin famously stating after their third win in a month: “We’re not finished yet.”

Terry Splawn: North Carolina’s Million-Dollar Repeater

Terry Splawn won $1 million twice at the exact same store in Concord, North Carolina, within less than two years:

April 2017: Millionaire Bucks scratch-off
March 2019: $150 Million Cash Explosion instant win (odds: 1 in 1.8 million)

When claiming his second prize, Splawn expressed genuine shock: “I can’t believe I won the lottery not once, but twice! I just thought, ‘This can’t be happening.'” A statistics professor at UNC-Chapel Hill confirmed the rarity but noted it wasn’t “impossibly rare” given the number of regular players.

Same-Day Double Winners: When Lightning Strikes Twice Immediately

Angelo and Maria Gallina: California’s One-Night Millionaires

On November 20, 2005, this Belmont, California couple won two different lottery games in a single evening:

Fantasy 5: $126,000 (before taxes)
SuperLotto Plus: $17 million (before taxes)

Their combined after-tax winnings totaled $6.6 million. Angelo had been buying $20 worth of tickets daily since 1985, using a device with numbered balls to select combinations. A statistics professor calculated their odds at approximately 1 in 23 trillion.

The Unnamed South Carolina Winner

In July 2021, one fortunate player won Mega Millions prizes twice within just 11 days, both from the same Murphy Gas Station in Myrtle Beach:

July 16: $40,000 (odds: 1 in 931,001)
July 27: $3 million (odds: 1 in 13 million)

South Carolina Education Lottery officials confirmed this had never happened before in the state’s 19-year history.

Delaware’s Anonymous $400,000 Winner

In 2022, a 70-year-old Delaware woman won two jackpots in the same week:

First win: $100,000 (odds: 1 in 120,000)
Second win: $300,000 (odds: 1 in 150,000) – purchased on the way home from claiming her first prize

The woman described her reaction as “disbelief” and planned to save most of the money for retirement.

International Multiple Winners

Bill Morgan: Australia’s Miraculous Two-Time Winner

Perhaps no multiple-win story is more remarkable than Bill Morgan’s. The truck driver from Australia won his first prize – a car – on a scratch-off ticket shortly after surviving a massive heart attack. When a local news station asked him to recreate the moment for their cameras, he bought another ticket at the same store and won $250,000 on camera.

The Sydney Man Who Won in One Week

A 40-year-old Sydney resident described as “the world’s luckiest man” won nearly 2.5 million Australian dollars in two separate draws within seven days in May 2018:

Saturday draw: $1,457,834 (one of 14 winners sharing a $20 million jackpot)
Following Monday: $1,020,487

Unable to believe his fortune, the winner planned to invest his windfall in property.

The French Double Million Winner

An anonymous French man won the “My Million” lottery twice within 18 months:

November 2016: €1 million
May 2018: €1 million

Mathematicians calculated his odds at approximately 19 million to one – yet he continued playing weekly between wins, demonstrating remarkable persistence.

David and Kathleen Long: UK’s EuroMillions Double Winners

This Scunthorpe couple became the first to publicly claim double EuroMillions wins in 2013, winning £1 million twice within months, plus a dream car. Gaming company Camelot calculated the odds at 283 billion to one. Facing tough times due to illness, the couple used their winnings to get married and retire early. They later won £100,000 on Cash 5 in 2017.

Accidental Multiple Winners

Gayle Say: The UK’s Duplicate Ticket Winner

Gayle Say, a cleaner and grandmother from Coventry, accidentally bought two identical tickets with the same numbers. When those numbers hit, she won £500,000 twice – totaling £1 million – allowing her to retire early.

The North Carolina Man Who Forgot His Ticket

In a twist of fate, one North Carolina resident forgot he’d already purchased a Lucky for Life ticket, then bought a second ticket with identical numbers. Both tickets won $25,000-a-year-for-life jackpots on the same draw (odds: 1 in 1,813,028 per ticket). His mistake effectively doubled his prize to $50,000 annually for life.

Stefan Mandel: The Mathematical Mastermind

While technically not a traditional repeat winner, Romanian-Australian economist Stefan Mandel deserves mention for winning 14 different lotteries worldwide through mathematical manipulation. By forming investment syndicates and buying every possible number combination in smaller lotteries, Mandel legally won major prizes 14 times between the 1960s and 1990s.

His most famous win involved a Virginia lottery with 7,059,052 possible combinations. By coordinating hundreds of people to purchase tickets covering all combinations, his group won the $27 million jackpot plus numerous smaller prizes. Though investigated by the CIA, FBI, and 14 international agencies, Mandel was never charged with wrongdoing. Most jurisdictions have since changed rules to prevent this strategy.

Do Strategies Actually Work?

Here’s where expert opinions diverge sharply. Statisticians unanimously agree that no strategy can change the fundamental odds of any individual lottery drawing. Each draw remains a random, independent event.

What the Mathematics Really Shows

However, certain approaches can potentially maximize value:

What Mathematicians Confirm:

Buying more tickets genuinely increases odds proportionally
Playing less popular number combinations reduces prize-splitting
Checking which scratch-off games still have unclaimed top prizes can improve expected value
Consistent play over decades increases the likelihood of eventually winning something

What Experts Dispute:

That certain numbers are “due” to win
That past winning numbers influence future draws
That specific number patterns improve odds
That quick-pick versus self-selected numbers affects probability

Financial experts like personal finance author Zac Bissonnette have characterized some lottery strategies as “dangerous,” particularly advice to continuously reinvest winnings. The fundamental truth remains: the lottery is designed as a negative-expected-value proposition for players.

Why Do Multiple Wins Keep Happening?

Several factors explain why multiple wins occur more frequently than the raw odds suggest:

Selection Bias: We only hear about multiple winners. Millions of one-time winners and billions of non-winners receive no media attention.
High-Frequency Players: Many repeat winners are dedicated players who purchase tickets weekly or even daily for decades. Someone buying 1,000 tickets yearly has far different lifetime odds than someone buying 10.
Reinvestment: Winners who put prize money back into tickets effectively increase their ticket volume without additional out-of-pocket costs.
Informed Play: Some winners research which scratch-off games have remaining top prizes or better overall odds, creating marginal advantages.
Statistical Inevitability: With hundreds of millions of regular lottery players globally, even trillion-to-one events eventually occur.

The Bottom Line: Should You Keep Playing After Winning?

Mathematically speaking, winning once doesn’t improve or reduce your odds of winning again. However, several practical considerations matter:

Key Factors to Consider

Reasons to Keep Playing:

If you genuinely enjoy the entertainment value
If you maintain strict budgets and only use “fun money”
If you’ve won enough to comfortably reinvest some winnings

Reasons to Stop:

If you’re spending bill money or going into debt
If you’re chasing losses or developing unhealthy patterns
If you believe you’re “due” for another win

The most successful multiple winners shared one trait: financial discipline. They set budgets, stuck to them, and never jeopardized their financial security chasing the next jackpot.

What We Can Learn from Serial Winners

Beyond the headlines and astronomical odds, these verified cases reveal several patterns:

Persistence Matters: Every multiple winner played regularly, often for decades. They didn’t win their second jackpot by occasionally buying tickets.
Location Loyalty: Many repeat winners purchased tickets from the same retailers repeatedly, though this likely reflects habit rather than magical venues.
Responsible Gaming: The most successful serial winners consistently emphasized playing within means and setting strict budgets.
Luck Still Dominates: Despite strategies, theories, and mathematical backgrounds, every expert agrees that extraordinary luck remains the primary factor.

The Takeaway

Multiple lottery winners prove that lightning can indeed strike twice – or even seven times. While their stories inspire hope in players worldwide, they also serve as cautionary tales about probability and risk. For every Joan Ginther who won $20 million across four jackpots, millions of players spend lifetimes without winning major prizes.

The verified cases presented here demonstrate that repeat wins, while extraordinarily rare, do occur. Whether through strategy, persistence, informed play, or simple luck, these winners beat odds that should have been impossible. Their stories remind us that in the world of lottery games, the improbable occasionally becomes reality – though you shouldn’t bet your rent money on it.

If you choose to play, take Richard Lustig’s most important advice to heart: “Don’t get lottery fever – don’t use your grocery money, or your rent money. Remember one thing, if there is one winner on Saturday night, there will be millions of losers, don’t be that person Sunday morning worrying about how you can pay back the money you spent.”

The lottery remains what it’s always been: entertainment with infinitesimal odds. These remarkable winners simply proved that even infinitesimal odds aren’t quite zero.

Lottery Winners Who Kept Playing: 15 People Who Won Major Jackpots Twice (or More)