What’s $3.5 million split 13,998 ways? Record number of SC lottery tickets are winners

A Pick 3 payout of $3.5 million is being split nearly 14,000 ways after a record number of winning tickets were sold, according to South Carolina Education Lottery officials.

Players are taking home either $250 or $500 per winning ticket, depending on how much they paid for them, a lottery release said.

A total of 13,998 were sold with the same three lucky numbers, 8-8-8, drawn Tuesday.

“Triple number combinations are by far the Lottery’s most popular played sequences, with Tuesday’s midday drawing producing 24 times the number (of) wins compared to the day prior,” the release said.

The number of winning plays tops the previous record, set in 2017, by just two. In that drawing, triple 4s were pulled.

Triple 8s have been drawn 15 times in SC lottery history, according to officials. Before Tuesday, the combination was last pulled in September 2018.