Virginia woman breaks record for most prize money won on ‘The Price Is Right’
by Brad Matthews · The Washington TimesA Virginia woman won $240,150 on an episode of “The Price Is Right” that aired Friday, setting a new record.
Contestant Vanesa McCaskell won $227,500 in cash, which was enough to break the previous overall prize record of $210,000 set in 2016 with a win in the show’s “Cliffhangers” game. She also won a luxury trip to Morocco worth $12,650, CBS Entertainment said in a release.
Ms. McCaskell raked in the dough via the 54-year-old show’s “The Lion’s Share” game, part of a partnership with gambling app BetMGM.
Contestants guess the prices of grocery items in order to accrue up to five balls, which are then dropped into a wind tunnel to reveal a hidden prize money amount, CBS Entertainment said.
Contestants are able to walk away with their current winnings or keep playing and risk it all after each round of the game. Ms. McCaskell chose to keep playing each round and ultimately revealed the prize amounts associated with each ball, CBS Entertainment said.
While the episode aired Friday, it was taped in December, which meant that Ms. McCaskell had to keep mum about her big win.
“It was torture. I was practicing my poker face so I didn’t crack when people asked me what happened. They’d say, ’Did you win?’ and I’d say, ’No.’ It was really, really tough to hold that,” Ms. McCaskell, a retired Army veteran, told USA Today.
Ms. McCaskell is from Toano, Virginia, about 105 miles south of the District of Columbia and 36 miles southeast of Richmond, according to WTVR-TV.
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• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.