Walib Aboroomi probably has the luckiest birthday in Virginia: July 15. It’s a date of birth he shares with Linda Ronstadt, Arianna Huffington, Jesse Ventura and Brigitte Nielson. But unlike these other people, Aboroomi has used the date to cash in. For the past two years, he has played 7-1-5 in Virginia Lottery’s Pick 3 game hundreds of times — with several significant wins. In March of 2006, Aboroomi purchased 102 Pick 3 tickets, again selecting the numbers 7-1-5 for each. All of them won, for total winnings of $51,000.
“It’s amazing, really,” said John Hagerty, a Lottery spokesman. “He’s a very lucky person.”
Then Lady Luck struck Aboroomi again last month, when he purchased 197 Pick 3 tickets, each for $1, at Braddock Road Xtra-Mart, located at 4133 Braddock Road in Alexandria. He bought the tickets for both the Jan. 25 night drawing and the Jan. 26 day drawing. Amazingly, those three numbers came up in exact order in both drawings. Each ticket won $500, for total winnings of $98,500.
“In the Pick 3 game, a lot of people continuously play the same numbers and are very loyal to them,” said Hagerty. “Mr. Aboroomi is an incredibly lucky person, but he is by no means the only person to be loyal to a certain set of numbers.”
A native of Haifa, Israel, Aboroomi has lived in Alexandria since 1989. He works as a home builder, and he just finished building a home with the help of his previous winnings.
“I had a dream and my dream came true,” he told Lottery officials in the Northern Virginia Regional Office where he claimed his prize, according to a press release issued by the Virginia Lottry. “It’s shocking!”