SC man looked at lottery ticket for days before believing he won grand prize
It took a long time of checking and rechecking a lottery ticket before a Midlands man accepted that he had won a South Carolina Education Lottery scratch-off game.
After three days of doubting, and a second-opinion from a relative, the man came to terms with the fact that he had won the game’s $100,000 grand prize, officials said in a news release.
“I was in disbelief,” he said in the release.
He said he thought his eyes were deceiving him when he scratched the Lady Jumbo Bucks Crossword ticket that he bought for $3 from the Speedway gas station/convenience store on North Lake Drive in Lexington to win six-figures, according to the release. That’s near the junction with Sunset Boulevard.
So he put the ticket away in a drawer, officials said. The next day he kept opening the drawer to study the ticket, and at one point he wrote down every word he had on the crossword ticket and counted them to be sure he had the 11 words needed for win, according to the release.
But he still wasn’t convinced.
On the third day, he showed the ticket to a family member who assured him it was the real deal, officials said.
The man didn’t offer specific plans on how he will spend his newfound windfall, but said the money will be donated to a church and used to help his family, according to the release.
The winner will be allowed to retain some privacy, as South Carolina is one of 11 states — along with Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Texas and Virginia — that allow lottery winners to remain anonymous.
The winner overcame 600,000-to-1 odds to win the Lady Jumbo Bucks Crossword game, according to the release. Two of the game’s seven top prizes remains unclaimed, officials said.
The Speedway on North Lake Drive in Lexington received a commission of $1,000 for selling the claimed ticket.
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