Winning the lottery alone is unlikely, for two lottery wins in one life you need a lot of luck - but for two in a row? Completely unrealistic, one might think. But that's exactly what a man in the US state of Maryland has actually done, as the BBC reports.

According to the report, the 56-year-old is said to have had his first success in a lottery shop in January: for a few dollars he bought a scratch card there and won the proud sum of 30,000 dollars. The win didn't make him stop playing though - and rightly so, as it turned out: when he spent $5 on a scratch card again, he won even more. With $ 50,000 he bagged the main prize in this game.

It was initially difficult for the lucky winner to win again, as he revealed to the lottery company: "I look at the slip of paper and think: 'That can't be right'. I called my girlfriend to take a look . I said to her, 'Tell me I'm not crazy.' She just looked at me and said, 'Incredible!'""

In addition to the two large-calibre prizes, he was even lucky with two other lots: one brought him a profit of at least 20 dollars with a stake of one dollar, and with another he was at least reimbursed for the cost of the lottery ticket.

He has not yet decided how he intends to spend the entire sum of more than $80,000 (around 74,600 euros). He only has one wish in mind: to celebrate his 60th birthday with his girlfriend on a holiday. He should have enough money for that now.

Which:BBC