Has Anyone Won the Lottery Twice?

You have to be really lucky to win the lottery. For many, it is a one-in-a-lifetime achievement. But the amazing part is that some people managed to win it twice. Considering the odds, this makes them one of the among the rarest statistical outcomes.

In this article, we move past the luck factor to analyze the actual odds of winning multiple times. We’ll explain why these wins are rare statistical outliers, rather than luck and break down the math that governs the game.

Famous Repeat Winners Who Won Twice

Here are some of the most popular repeat winners in the lottery, starting with the most recent double jackpot winners.

Richard Davies and Faye Davies-Stevenson

The Davies got their first £1m jackpot in 2018 from the Euromillion Millionaire Maker. In 2025, they got another £1m win in the UK National Lottery. They credit their win to the power of positive thinking and encourage others to keep believing. According to a report by Sky News, the couple beat odds of 1 in 24 trillion to win the double jackpot.

They remain very active members of their community and still work their jobs. They also volunteer with lottery for good causes organizations like the Haircuts4Homeless in Cardiff.

David and Kathleen Long

Joining the list of the luckiest lottery couple is a Scunthorpe couple, David and Kathleen Long. Similar to the Davies above, they won the £1m EuroMillions lottery twice. They got their first win in 2013 and got their second win in 2015. The second win came with a brand new premium Jaguar vehicle.

In his words, David Long claimed he decided to buy the ticket when he saw there were 100 prizes of £1m jackpot and a nice car. .

Bill Morgan

Bill Morgan was dubbed the luckiest man in the world when he won the lottery on live television. His backstory has a sad tone to it. First, he had a tragic car crash that put him in a coma for 12 days. He was declared clinically dead by the hospital with a very slim chance to survive. But he did. He continued playing lottery scratch cards till he got lucky and won AUD 30,000.

His amazing story from being in a coma to a lottery winner prompted a local TV outlet to invite him on air. They asked him to reenact his lottery win. To the astonishment of everyone, he won AUD 250,000.

Duane Ketterman

Duane Ketterman is a double jackpot winner from the Maryland lottery. Prior to his win, he worked as a powerline technician who traveled to Maryland for work daily. He purchases tickets on a daily basis. His first win came from the Racetrax game; he won $18,000. A few weeks later, he won another $30,785.

Duane’s story illustrates repeated exposure to random chance rather than any control over outcomes.

Evelyn Adams

Evelyn is more popularly known as the woman who won twice but lost it all. Evelyn’s first win came in October 1985, when she won $3.9 million from the New Jersey lottery. Just four months later, she won another $1.4 million. Her strategy at that time was to buy a lot of tickets. She spent $25 weekly on tickets and upped it to $100 a week until she won the jackpot.

Sadly, she lost her wealth due to bad business decisions and an awful gambling addiction.

What Are the Odds of Winning the Lottery Twice?

The lottery odds are slim enough. But twice is where it gets tough. We will calculate the odds of winning the lottery from two levels. First is before the first win, and second is after the first win.

Before the First Win

Let’s assume you decide today that you want to win the lottery twice, your odds of winning the lottery will be the square of the odds. The odds multiplied by itself.

Consider a game like the Canada Lotto 6/49 which has a game matrix of 6/49, the odds of winning the game once is 1 in 14 million. To win twice, you will have to beat these odds:

After the First Win

After you have gotten the first win, the odds revert back. Each lottery draw is independent in the sense that the lottery doesn’t remember that you won once. So the odds of getting another win after your first win is 1 in 14 million (for a 6/49 game).

See the table below to check the odds some double jackpot winner beat:

Is it Luck or Something More?

On the surface, we can call it luck. After all, you can’t influence the lottery or game the results. But if you look at it through a scientific lens, it’s really just a game of massive numbers.

1. The laws of probability tell us that extremely rare occurrences will happen occasionally in a very large population. With hundreds of millions of lottery players worldwide over many years, someone will win twice. That person isn’t an expert; they are just the outlier produced by a huge sample size.
2. Human behavior comes into play here, too. After getting your first win, you will no doubt be encouraged to keep playing. Some winners chose to continue playing after their first win. Their win increased their purchasing power which helped them get more tickets. However, the odds do not change and remain extremely small.
3. The odds also change when you buy more tickets. Buying more tickets increases the number of attempts, but the probability of winning remains extremely small.For instance, buying one ticket for a 6/49 game gives you odds of 1 in 14 million. But if you buy 100 tickets, your odds change to 1 in 140000. It is a long shot, but it is a shorter path to the jackpot prize. Consider lottery syndicate options to cover more ticket combinations.

How Many Times Can You Win The Lottery?

In theory, there is no limit. Dr. Mark Glickman, a Senior Lecturer in Statistics at Harvard University, explains on CBS News that each lottery draw is an independent event. As a result, previously winning the lottery does not improve or make less likely the chance of winning the lottery in the future.

Another famous example is Fekru Hirpo from Virginia. He played the Virginia Pick 4 lottery in March 2023. He didn’t just play once; he bought 20 identical tickets for the same drawing at a Shell gas station in Arlington. In Pick 4, the top prize for a $1 bet is $5,000. Because he had 20 identical tickets, he claimed 20 top prizes simultaneously, totaling $100,000.

Conclusion

One thing worth mentioning however is that the lottery is a long shot regardless of if you are chasing your first win or your second win. You should participate responsibly and only with money they can afford to lose. If you choose to participate, view it as a form of entertainment rather than a financial strategy. The lottery is, and will always be, a long shot.

Keep your stakes low, play within your means. You can play with as little as $2 on lottery sites like theLotter, LottoAgent, WinTrillions, and LottoGo.

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