Lottery player wins big on anniversary with late wife and takes ticket to cemetery

Larry Munden bought a scratch-off ticket he knew his late wife would have liked and then played it on their wedding anniversary in Virginia.

When he won a $100,000 top prize, he wanted to share the news with her, the Virginia Lottery said in a July 31 news release.

“I carried it out to the cemetery and showed it to her,” he told lottery officials.

Munden and his wife used to sit in their garage and play lottery games for fun, but he told lottery officials she died last year.

When the Chesapeake man saw the Big Money Bingo ticket at the grocery store, he decided to buy it because his wife loved bingo, then he scratched it on their special day.

He beat the 1-in-816,000 odds to secure the final top prize in the game, bringing it to a close, according to the Virginia Lottery.

Munden, who is retired, said he plans to give half the money to his daughter and son-in-law. He added he’ll “keep playing bingo in honor of his late wife,” lottery officials said.

Chesapeake is near the southern coast of the state, about a 25-mile drive southwest from Virginia Beach.

This story was originally published August 1, 2024 at 11:08 AM with the headline "Lottery player wins big on anniversary with late wife and takes ticket to cemetery."