Colorado woman, in NH for NASCAR race, wins $1M with lottery ticket bought in Portsmouth

Ian Lenahan, Portsmouth Herald
·2 min read

PORTSMOUTH — A Colorado woman visiting New Hampshire with her husband to attend a NASCAR race is the state’s first million-dollar lottery winner of the year.

The New Hampshire Lottery announced Thursday that Colorado Springs resident Cheryl Vossen claimed her $1 million prize after purchasing the winning ticket in Portsmouth at the New Hampshire Liquor and Wine Outlet store off the city traffic circle this week.

Buying the ticket for a $555 Mega Millions jackpot draw Tuesday night, Vossen and three other lottery ticket purchasers in Arizona, California and North Carolina each won $1 million. Each ticket matched the first five Mega Millions balls drawn on Tuesday, the numbers on which were 2, 31, 32, 37 and 70.

While there was no jackpot winner in the latest Mega Millions drawing, Cheryl Vossen of Colorado Springs, Colorado, with her husband, Brian, claimed a $1 million Mega Millions prize on Thursday, July 21, 2022 after purchasing the winning ticket at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlet on the Portsmouth traffic circle. They are seen here at New Hampshire Lottery headquarters in Concord.

Vossen’s fortuitous purchase is the second summer in a row that a $1 million lottery ticket has been sold in Portsmouth. Cabot Street Market sold a seven-figure-winning ticket in July 2021.

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Vossen and her husband had played the Mega Millions only one time before their million-dollar purchase, according to a New Hampshire Lottery press release. The couple watched the Ambetter 301 NASCAR race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon this past Sunday. They stopped at the liquor store in Portsmouth Monday, buying $10 worth of Mega Millions tickets for Tuesday’s draw.

“While they have no specific plans for the prize money, they did say they would like to take a vacation to the Maldives,” the New Hampshire Lottery reported.

A $1 million Mega Millions lottery ticket was sold in Portsmouth on Tuesday at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlet on the Route 1 Bypass, see here Wednesday, July 20, 2022.
A $1 million Mega Millions lottery ticket was sold in Portsmouth on Tuesday at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlet on the Route 1 Bypass, see here Wednesday, July 20, 2022.

Nobody won Tuesday’s $555 million jackpot, which has odds of one in nearly 302.6 million. To win any Mega Millions draw, a ticket has to match the first five numbers and the gold “Mega Ball,” which was 25 on Tuesday.

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The Mega Millions prize carries over to its next scheduled draw on Friday night and has increased to an estimated $660 million, one of the highest prizes in the game’s history.

New Hampshire Lottery marketing director Maura McCann previously said the New Hampshire Liquor and Wine Outlet in Portsmouth receives a $10,000 prize for selling the ticket.

A $1 million Mega Millions lottery ticket was sold in Portsmouth this week at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlet on the Route 1 Bypass.
A $1 million Mega Millions lottery ticket was sold in Portsmouth this week at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlet on the Route 1 Bypass.

The Mega Millions draw taking place Friday, according to the New Hampshire Lottery, has been growing since April, when a Tennessee lottery player purchased a ticket that won a $20 million jackpot.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Portsmouth's winning lottery ticket bought by woman in town for NASCAR