It's hard enough to win over a quarter of a million dollars once. Even rarer to get the chance of two wins for the same amount... the odds are in the millions. But when you get a double win, for the same amount, with identical numbers - you just have to give up calculating.

John Roland still can't believe his luck with his two New Jersey Cash 5 lottery wins.
Photo: NJ Lottery

Because a Bergen County man did exactly this, winning $292,935 with each ticket having the identical numbers: 11-15-16-20-28. 

How did he manage to do this? After all, we try and make sure that every Silver Lotto System ticket contains no duplicates... so could duplicate tickets be an advantage?

The answer is still no.

Garfield-based John Roland couldn't explain what happened. He turned up at his regular lotto store, the River Drive Bar in Garfield.

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"I told the clerk my numbers for the first ticket," he explained to NJ.com. "Then I filled out another bet slip with the same numbers and three other sets of numbers."

Since there was a third ticket sold in Ocean County with all the winning numbers, Roland claimed two-thirds of the jackpot. Had he bought just one ticket he would have won half.