Ohio's new vaccine lottery will give away $1 million prizes, full-ride college scholarships

A COVID-19 vaccine vial.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Free beer? Pssh. Free baseball tickets? Not good enough. A free $1 million? That works.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) announced on Wednesday that residents 18 and over who get vaccinated will be eligible to win $1 million, through the state's new "Ohio Vax-a-Million" program. The lottery will start May 26, and every Wednesday for five weeks, a person will be selected to take home $1 million. The winners will be pulled from the Ohio Secretary of State's voter registration database, The Columbus Dispatch reports.

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There's also an incentive to get teenagers vaccinated — the program is giving away five full-ride public college scholarships, covering tuition, books, and room and board to young people who get their COVID-19 shots. Beginning May 18, 12- to 17-year-olds can sign up online for the scholarship drawing.

So far, about 4.88 million Ohio residents have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine — and if this new lottery incentive works, expect that number to go up, fast.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.