If you live anywhere in Virginia, are over the age of 18, and have access to purchase lottery tickets, then you have a chance to win a million dollars once a year. Since 2007, the Virginia Lottery has put forth a New Year’s Raffle to start the next year off with a bang.
If you want to join in on the action, you will need to have an online account for the Virginia Lottery to make things easier or by simply purchasing in-store. Once you have done this and funded your account, you can take part in the next drawing towards the end of the year when they begin selling the tickets.
Players have the option to purchase their raffle tickets in person, but it must be at a Lottery Terminal or a self-serving vending machine. You can also buy online if available.
Once the ticket has been purchased, and the drawing has taken place, players will need to try and match their numbers to the ones that have been drawn. There will not be any unique numbers you have to pick, as the machine automatically selects every ticket.
Once all the tickets have been sold, or the deadline has been reached, whichever happens first, then the game will be closed. This will be noted online at any given time.
The numbers you will need to look for are in a range from 500000 to 000001. Tickets will be issued to players in descending order, which shows how many tickets are left.
The drawing takes place each year around 10:00 AM ET on January 1 of the next particular year. In the event that it needs to be changed or because all of the tickets are sold, the Director will make a statement saying otherwise.
Once a ticket has been printed, it cannot be canceled. So make sure you are ready to play this game when you purchase it online or in-store.
Make sure you purchase your ticket from an authorized lottery retailer. Many scams over the years have tried to lure people into buying online at non-retailers or over the phone.
There will be a total of 500,000 raffle tickets for sale once the game begins. The prize table is as follows:
| Prize | Quantity | Odds |
| $1,000,000 | 4 | 1 in 125,000 |
| $100,000 | 6 | 1 in 83,333 |
| $500 | 500 | 1 in 1,000 |
In total, there are 510 prizes available out of the 500,000. The overall odds of winning a single raffle prize are 1 in 980.
If you would like to increase your chances of winning one of those prizes, you would have to purchase an additional raffle ticket. Doing this method does not guarantee you to win a prize, so use this method accordingly.
Keep in mind that these tickets will cost you $20 each time. This could add up quickly for many, especially if you do not budget this into your financial situation.