The old saying “bad luck in love, lucky in gambling” may seem more like consolation after the end of a relationship, but in the case of the Colombian Josefina Gonzales it can be seen as a summary of her life in recent weeks.
After her husband started dating her best friend and she was mired in sadness for days, the woman who had been a seamstress all her life became a millionaire and saw her financial problems resolved overnight.
The game known as “El Doble Chance Milionario”, something like “Two chances to be a millionaire” in literal translation, allows a pick to be awarded in two different draws. To do this, you need to get two out of five numbers correct in two different lotteries at the same time. And that’s exactly what happened to Josefina.
Using the combination 8628 in the El Sinuano lottery and 1935 in the Caribeña Noche, the woman managed to bag 1,560 billion Colombian pesos, which equals 1.8 million BRL, the highest prize awarded for this type of game in Colombia.
Josefina told a local newspaper, Zona Cero, that she couldn’t believe it when she saw the numbers that were drawn the morning after the bet, as the performance was very unlikely and she wasn’t feeling happy lately.
When the result was confirmed, she had a much happier and more optimistic outlook for 2023. The Colombian says she is about to lose her home, which was just days away from the auction, and her daughter, who works at an accounting department I was studying at a private university and was unable to reregister due to lack of funds.
Despite the resulting situation, the exhusband of the new millionaire was the first to call to congratulate Josefina. Luckily, the woman chose to follow the lead of singer Shakira, one of Colombia’s greatest idols, leaving behind what she called the “ungrateful”.
*Internship at R7 under the direction of Pablo Marques