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September 21, 2009
 As a defense contractor working overseas, Maurice Ruffin of Chesapeake spends his days right in the middle of Baghdad. When he comes home on leave, Ruffin expects to have a little rest, some relaxation and, sure, a little fun. Part of that fun involves playing lottery games.
“I’ve been playing the Virginia Lottery for a long time,” said Ruffin. “I like to give all the games a try when I’m home.” Lucky for him, one of the games he chose to play during this round of leave was the Virginia Lottery’s $20 Maximum Millions.
Ruffin bought his ticket at 7-Eleven, located at 500 North Battlefield Boulevard in Chesapeake.
“I scratched it right in the store and, at first, I thought I must be seeing things,” Ruffin recalled. “I took my ticket to the clerk and asked her to look it. She got a big smile and came around from the counter to give me a hug!”
Ruffin took his ticket home, put it in a pants pocket and kept it by his bed.
“I kept looking at the ticket all night,” he said. “I didn’t get any sleep because I thought it was a dream.” The following day, he collected his prize at the Virginia Lottery’s Prize Zone in Richmond.
“My wife and I will have a little fun with some of the money,” said Ruffin. “I will definitely put some in the bank but I’m also thinking about buying a few of those $50,000,000 Redskins Mania tickets!”
Mr. Ruffin is the fourth player to claim the top prize of $1 million over 25 years in the Maximum Millions game. He chose to take the cash option of $564,000 before taxes.
Maximum Millions is one of dozens of Scratcher games offered by the Virginia Lottery. The game has prizes ranging from $20 all the way up to 15 top prizes of $1 million in 25 annual payments. There are still 11 top-prize tickets yet to be claimed.
Nearly 95 cents of each dollar spent on the Virginia Lottery by players goes back to the Commonwealth in the form of contributions to education, prizes and retailer commissions. Since 1999, all Virginia Lottery profits have been designated solely to K-12 public school education in the Commonwealth. In that time, the Lottery has turned over more than $4 billion for Virginia’s public schools. The latest annual profits of $439.1 million currently represent about 6 percent of state funding for public education in Virginia. In 21 years, the Lottery has sold more than $21.1 billion in tickets, awarded more than $1.1 billion in retailer commissions and paid more than $11.6 billion in prizes to players.
Please play responsibly.
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