The Daily Populous Thursday December 18th, 2025 night edition
Authored by cnn.com and submitted by cnn

Theirs is a 24-trillion-to-one tale – a Welsh couple who defied astronomical odds to become million-dollar winners not just once, but twice.

Richard Davies, age 49, and his wife, Faye Stevenson-Davies, 43, claimed their second life- changing sum from the United Kingdom’s National Lottery on Tuesday after listening to a gut instinct telling them to ignore odds and go for it.

“We knew the odds of it happening again were outrageous,” mental health practitioner Stevenson-Davies said in a statement released by the National Lottery, “But we’re proof that if you believe, anything is possible.”

The lucky couple first hit the jackpot in June 2018 when their numbers, drawn in a game of EuroMillions Millionaire Maker, landed them a handsome £1 million (roughly $1.3 million.)

Even after their win, the pair continued to buy lottery tickets, nursing a hope that another scoop might be in the cards.

They were right to follow their hunch, but their second success was a little harder-won. This time, it took four consecutive draws to get them the big bucks.

“When you match two numbers in the Lotto draw, you automatically win a Lucky Dip for the next game,” Davies, a hairdresser-turned-courier, explained. “That’s what’s happened to us. We matched two numbers and won a free Lucky Dip … That put us into the next draw and so on, until the winning draw.”

In their own Christmas miracle, the duo scooped another £1 million, astonishing experts who estimate odds of a double win to be one in 24 trillion.

Despite their wins, the pair haven’t lost their appetite for work. Davies said he will continue to work seven days a week as a courier over Christmas, determined to deliver the many parcels ordered over the festive season.

Meanwhile, Stevenson-Davies said she will carry on offering mental health support to her clients, including on Christmas Day.

But the couple will need to take some time to think, as they’ve yet to decide how to spend their prize money. “The first time around we gifted people cars, we donated a minibus to the local rugby team and did our best to help friends and family … It was amazing to be able to make a difference,” Davies said.

He added: “This time, who knows? We’ll take our time and enjoy the moment.”

Across the Atlantic, the United States has a seen few of its own two-time-winners. In July, Massachusetts man Paul Corcoran hit the Powerball twice in one night, scoring himself a total $2 million.

Back in 2020, a Powerball player in Colorado got lucky twice in a month using numbers he’d routinely used for 30 years. He said his $2 million prize was spoken for with thanks to his wife, whom he affectionately termed “the boss.”

Kayel41 on December 18th, 2025 at 00:07 UTC »

Something about winning 1.3 million dollars and still going out to buy more tickets

mabus42 on December 17th, 2025 at 16:42 UTC »

Winning two top jackpots is almost impossible. I would certainly hope that a fraud investigation was kicked off to ensure that the prize winners legitimately won and that there was no rigging or interference in the lottery process.

Lotteries have been rigged before.

manikfox on December 17th, 2025 at 14:58 UTC »

Not how odds work... but sure... lets cherry pick. They wouldn't be news if they never won their second time.

For everyone that has already won, they have as equal chance winning with a new ticket as anyone else. We aren't looking at the list of people who have never won and trying to win two tickets in a row.

Also, if they used all their lottery winnings to buy more tickets, wouldn't that change the odds significantly?

Odds for 1 million people playing the lottery once every week and winning twice:

Timeframe Total Draws Probability of a Double Winner Odds (1 in X) 1 Year 52 0.0055% 1 in 18,180 10 Years 520 0.56% 1 in 178 25 Years 1,300 3.4% 1 in 29 50 Years 2,600 13.1% 1 in 7.6 80 Years 4,160 30.2% 1 in 3.3

Odds of 1 person playing the lottery every week and winning twice:

Timeframe Probability Odds (1 in X) Comparable to... 1 Year 0.000000005% 1 in 18.1 Billion Picking 1 specific second in 570 years. 10 Years 0.0000005% 1 in 178 Million Being attacked by a shark and struck by lightning. 25 Years 0.0000035% 1 in 28.4 Million Winning a standard Lotto 6/49 Jackpot once. 50 Years 0.000014% 1 in 7.1 Million Being a math genius (roughly 1 in 7M people). 80 Years 0.000036% 1 in 2.8 Million Flipping a coin heads 22 times in a row.