Winner collects first $250,000 prize for Washington’s vaccine lottery
Jun 10, 2021, 5:12 PM | Updated: Jun 11, 2021, 6:16 am
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
The first ever winner of the $250,000 prize from Washington’s vaccine lottery has collected their money, the state reports.
Gov. Inslee announces COVID-19 vaccine incentives
The winner was Lance R., who chose not to fully identify himself, but did submit a written statement upon collecting his money.
“I got lucky,” his statement begins.
It continues:
Mainly I was lucky that I didn’t get hit with Covid before the vaccines were developed and available. Millions around the world haven’t had such good luck.
Getting the phone call yesterday that I won the big prize in this week’s Washington vaccine lottery is also all about luck. Icing on the cake. Totally unexpected.
But if you haven’t gotten vaccinated yet, especially when it is so easy now to do, you’re taking a very high risk gamble. You can’t count on your luck holding out. Besides, the shots are free.
There will be 3 more lucky Washington winners of this lottery over the next 3 weeks, and then on July 13, someone who is vaccinated will be even luckier than I am today and win a million dollars. Just for doing the right thing.
For your self, for those who care for you, and for the whole community that we’re all part of, let’s get ourselves vaccinated. To top it off you might just win a lot of money.
Lance picked up his $250,000 check on Thursday at a regional lottery office, minus roughly 24% taken off the top for taxes.
‘Will take time’ for Washington state, feds to align on vaccine totals
The state will draw a new winner for a $250,000 cash prize in each of the next three weeks, before wrapping up with an additional final drawing on July 13 for a $1 million prize. The vaccine lottery will also include hundreds of other non-cash prizes, such as airline and sports tickets, gift cards, game systems, smart speakers, higher education tuition and expense assistance, and gift cards.
Washingtonians who are vaccinated against COVID-19 don’t need to do anything to be entered to win any of the available prizes. The lottery will automatically gather names from the Washington State Department of Health’s statewide immunization database.
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