Ohio Vaccine Lottery -- Five Vaccinated Residents Will Win $1 Million

The benefits of being vaccinated just increased by a million for Ohio residents.

Luis Alvarez | Getty Images

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced that for five weeks, the state will run a weekly drawing of $1 million to give to adult residents who have received at least one dose of any COVID-19 vaccine.

DeWine is dubbing the drawings “Ohio Vax-a-Million”, which will run for five Wednesdays starting on May 26.

“The pool of names for the drawing will be derived from the Ohio Secretary of State’s publicly available voter registration database,” DeWine tweeted. “Further, we will make available a webpage for people to sign up for the drawings if they are not in a database we are using.”

To be eligible to win, you must be at least 18 years of age or older on the day of the drawing. You must be an Ohio resident. And, you must be vaccinated before the drawing.



We will have further, specific details tomorrow and in the days ahead.

— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) May 12, 2021

Non-adults from ages 12-17 will be entered in a different drawing to win scholarships following the same time frame as the lottery drawing.

"The winner will receive a full, four-year scholarship to our State of Ohio universities," DeWine said. "This will include tuition, room and board, and books.”

DeWine said that the money will come from existing Coronavirus Relief Funds.

“I know that some may say, 'DeWine, you’re crazy!  This million-dollar drawing idea of yours is a waste of money,'” he wrote. “But truly, the real waste at this point in the pandemic — when the vaccine is readily available to anyone who wants it -- is a life lost to COVID-19.”

Eligible residents must be vaccinated before the time of the drawing and the pool of names of those eligible will be derived from the state’s voter registration database.

Ohio reached over 1 million coronavirus cases as of Thursday afternoon.