Wife quietly plays lottery game as her husband sleeps – then she has to wake him up

As Kimberly Stone played an online lottery game in Virginia, she thought back on her lack of luck.

“Why can’t I ever win one of these big jackpots?” she thought to herself.

The Nathalie woman quietly played the game as her husband slept, holding out hope her luck would change, according to a Dec. 7 news release from the Virginia Lottery.

Then she saw the winning jackpot symbols – and had to wake her husband.

“Are you playing with me?” her husband asked her, not believing she had actually won.

Stone was looking down at a $327,061 prize.

She won Virginia Lottery’s The Lamp game jackpot, a prize that grows progressively as more players participate. The odds of winning a prize per game are 1 in 3.55.

When lottery officials asked if The Lamp was Stone’s favorite game, she said “It is now!”

Nathalie is about 220 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.

This story was originally published December 7, 2023 at 6:07 PM with the headline "Wife quietly plays lottery game as her husband sleeps – then she has to wake him up."

Irene Wright

McClatchy DC

Irene Wright is a McClatchy Real-Time reporter. She earned a B.A. in ecology and an M.A. in health and medical journalism from the University of Georgia and is now based in Atlanta. Irene previously worked as a business reporter at The Dallas Morning News.