A Friday-night lottery tradition turned into a $50,000 payday for two sisters in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Virginia Lawrence and her sister, Sue Bryant, have been buying Kentucky Lottery tickets together every Friday at IGA Express on Duntov Way. Store employees even gave them the playful nickname “Crazy Lotto Sisters” and often joked that their big win was coming.
Their weekly routine almost ended the night they bought the winning ticket.
“I told my sister I wasn’t going to scratch that night,” Virginia said. She had worked all day and was exhausted, but Sue convinced her to go ahead.
The sisters each picked four tickets using lucky nickels from their birth years. When Virginia scratched her $3 Super 7’s ticket, she quickly realized something special had happened—the ticket revealed the game’s $50,000 top prize.
A Lucky Friday Pays Off
- Winning game: $3 Super 7’s Scratch-off
- Top prize: $50,000
- After-tax payout: $18,125 for each sister
- Retailer bonus: IGA Express received $500
The sisters said they had been hoping for a major win for quite some time. They usually kept their lottery spending low, never buying tickets costing more than $5. In the past, they once won $500 on a $2 ticket and used those winnings to keep playing.
Sue plans to put her prize money toward home improvements, while Virginia said the unexpected windfall gives her some extra financial breathing room as she prepares to retire.
The Kentucky Lottery introduced the $3 Super 7’s Scratch-off in June 2026. At the time of the report, eight second-tier $1,000 prizes and 123 third-tier $100 prizes were still available.
The Kentucky Lottery said it paid out more than $1.8 billion in prizes in 2026. Its proceeds have also supported scholarships and grants for more than 1.1 million Kentucky college students.
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