Herndon, Va., man uses Megaplier to win $5 million

Drawing Date: 6/12/2015

June 19, 2015 - Andy Ciaccio was at work when he checked the winning numbers in the June 12 Mega Millions drawing. That’s when he discovered he had matched the first five numbers, missing only the Mega Ball number.

“This has to be worth something,” he thought.

He was right. Normally that would win $1 million. But Mr. Ciaccio spent an extra dollar for the Megaplier when he bought his ticket. The Megaplier number in that drawing was 5, which increased his prize 5X to $5 million.

“I was speechless,” he said. “I thought, ‘This can’t be!’”

He bought his winning ticket at Sheetz, 600 Blackwell Road in Warrenton, Val, just across the street from where he works. On June 19 he returned to the store to receive his check from Virginia Lottery Executive Director Paula Otto. The store received a $50,000 bonus from the Lottery for selling the winning ticket.

The winning numbers were 1-40-42-56-62, and the Mega Ball number was 2. He used Easy Pick and allowed the computer to randomly select the numbers on his ticket.

Mr. Ciaccio, who lives in Herndon and works as a finance officer at Country Chevrolet in Warrenton, split the prize with his two sons, Justin and Bryan, who each claimed $500,000 of the winnings.

Mega Millions is hot in Virginia. Mr. Ciaccio is one of four people in the Commonwealth to win at least $1 million in Mega Millions within just the past two months.