Woman goes big with $50 Florida Lottery ticket and wins life-changing prize

Spending $50 on a single lottery ticket is a big gamble for most people, but it ended in a huge lottery win for one Florida woman.

Elizabeth Stewart, 58, bought the 500X the Cash ticket at Publix in her hometown of Mount Dora, and a series of scratches quickly revealed she had won $1 million, according to the Florida Lottery.

That’s a second-tier prize in the game and the odds of winning it are 1-in-274,004, the lottery said.

Stewart picked up her winnings Wednesday, April 9, and was given a choice of having it parceled out over time or taking it in a lump sum — minus a lot of tax withholding.

“She chose to receive her winnings as a one-time, lump-sum payment of $640,000,” lottery officials said.

Stewart was clearly aiming high when she bought the 500X the Cash ticket, which has a $25 million top prize — “the largest ever offered on a Florida Scratch-Off game.”

Two top prizes were offered when the game launched in January 2024, and the odds of winning one is an intimidating 1-in-21,920,355. (Only one top prize remains.)

Mount Dora is about a 35-mile drive northwest of Orlando.

The Publix store where Stewart bought the ticket got a $2,000 commission “for selling the winning scratch-off ticket,” lottery officials said.

This story was originally published April 10, 2025 at 12:57 PM with the headline "Woman goes big with $50 Florida Lottery ticket and wins life-changing prize."