COVID vaccine lottery: Who won Ohio’s Vax-a-Million drawing?

CLEVELAND — We’re just hours away from learning who won the first $1 million prize in Ohio’s COVID vaccine lottery incentive known as Vax-a-Million.

The winner will be revealed at 7:29 p.m. tonight, which you can watch live on Channel 3 or right here on WKYC.com. The announcement comes two days after state officials pulled the first winner’s name Monday afternoon from a pool of 2,758,490 entries. The reason the drawing isn’t held live is so state officials have time to verify the winner’s information — including proof of vaccination.

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The Vax-a-Million contest is open to all Ohioans ages 18 and older who have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Participants must enter the contest voluntarily in order to be eligible for the $1 million prize. If you don’t win the $1 million in this week’s drawing, you still have four more chances. Entering your name once makes you eligible for all of the Vax-a-Million drawings. 

The next four winners will be announced on the following dates:

• June 2
• June 9
• June 16
• June 23

Vaccinated Ohioans younger than 18 can enter to win a four-year, full-ride scholarship with room and board, tuition and books to any Ohio state college or university.

Here’s how the drawing works: Each person who enters is assigned a unique number. A computer then randomly picks one of those numbers as the winner, according to Pat McDonald, who is the Ohio Lottery’s director.

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