What happens when someone gets so good at winning the lottery that the lottery itself jokingly tells him to quit? It sounds like the setup to a joke, but in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, it’s a baffling reality.
Andrew Williams, a man whose winning streak is so improbable it seems to defy the laws of mathematics. It’s a story about a strategy he called “madness”.
The story reached its peak Williams, a resident of Belair, walked into the National Lottery Authority (NLA) to collect a cheque for $499,200 from the Play Four game. A win of that magnitude is life-changing on its own. But what makes this story legendary is that it was simply the latest victory in an unbelievable run.
This latest win came on the heels of two other massive prizes. His incredible streak began in May 2024, building a backstory of sheer improbability:
• May 7th, 2024: A Super Six jackpot of $240,000.
• May 13th, 2024: A Play Four win of $380,000.
The sheer improbability was not lost on the NLA’s leadership. After detailing these three staggering wins, General Manager Mr. McGregor Sealey struggled to find the words, resorting to a colorful metaphor to capture the feeling of disbelief at the press conference.
“They say lightning don’t strike one place at the same time but like lightning has struck three in the world.”
So, how did he do it? Williams’s strategy was one of pure, unwavering persistence. He revealed that he had been playing the same winning numbers, 9778, for “close to two years” before his massive payout.
He also didn’t play small. He admitted to playing “big,” a high-stakes strategy that he himself described with a single, candid word.
When asked about his playing style, Mr. Williams said he played with what he called, for lack of a better word, “madness.”
While Williams collected his prize, the NLA made a public appeal for another to come forward. There is currently a major, unclaimed prize waiting for its owner from the December 30th drawing.
The prize is 233,500, a winning share from the 1.4 million Super Six jackpot that was split among six winners across the four Windward Islands.
The winning ticket in St. Vincent and the Grenadines was sold at the Lions Club in Kingstown. The winner has 180 days, or six months, from the draw date to come forward and collect their life-changing winnings.
