Reims man wins €500k 20 years after first lottery win

The man - who bought the winning ticket in a bar-tabac named La Tabatière, on Rue Vauban in Reims - took home the scratchcard’s highest jackpot after realising he had won, local reports said.

This incredible stroke of luck was made even more impressive after the same man was revealed to have won 100,000 francs - worth around €15,244.86 at today’s exchange rates - two decades ago, after a game of BlackJack played in 1998. (The franc was replaced by the euro in January 1999.)

The man’s identity has not been revealed to the public, but he does appear to be one of the city’s luckiest individuals.

The man’s luck also appears to extend to the lottery ticket itself, as his win and claiming of his money appear to have been granted without any problems so far.

This is in contrast to two apparent lottery winners in October of last year - including a woman, also from Reims, who lodged an official complaint against lottery company La Française Des Jeux (FDJ), after claiming her bar-tabac said it had “lost” her winning ticket.

The accusation came in the same month as another apparent winner claimed that a bar-tabac in Gif-sur-Yvette in Essonne (Ile-de-France) had allegedly deliberately changed a winning lottery ticket for a losing one, so the owners could pocket the winning numbers themselves.