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Man plays the same numbers 200 times -- and wins $1M in Virginia Lottery

A Virginia man decided to play his birth month and year in a Pick 4 promotion -- 200 times for one drawing. And when those numbers came up, he found himself $1 million richer.

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Al Ghaemi, 57, a retired real estate investor from Alexandria, played the 0-2-6-5 numbers 200 times for the Sept. 6 drawing in the Virginia Lottery, lottery officials said in a news release. When those numbers were drawn, each of his tickets won the game’s top prize of $5,000, giving him a cool million.

And Ghaemi remained cool despite the big payday. According to lottery officials, the chances of matching all four numbers in order are 1-in-10,000.

“I must tell you, I really haven’t hit the ceiling,” Ghaemi said in a statement. “I can’t tell you that I jumped up.”

Ghaemi bought his tickets at a Safeway convenience store in McLean. He said he decided to buy 200 tickets because he was preparing to leave town and decided to “splurge” to see what happened.

The result was worth a million.

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