Man wins hefty SC lottery prize hours before a trip. He spent his vacation ‘debt free’
.jpg "The man hurried to cash the check before he left the same day, lottery officials said.")
Relaxing on a vacation after winning a lottery jackpot is an experience most can only dream of — but for one South Carolina man, it became reality.
The Upstate man, who was not identified, picked up his lucky ticket on Friday the 13th in January, the South Carolina Education Lottery said in a Feb. 16 news release.
He was running a few errands as he was preparing to leave for his trip and grabbed some ice and a ticket from the Publix Super Market in Mauldin, according to lottery officials.
He was stunned to see he won the top $300,000 prize in the $300,000 Gold Rush game, lottery officials said.
The man drove to the lottery headquarters in Columbia the same day to cash the ticket, then rushed home and left on his trip — “debt free,” he told lottery officials.
The Publix that sold the winning ticket got a $3,000 commission. The odds of winning the top prize are 1-in-1,080,000, according to the lottery.
Mauldin is about 10 miles southeast of Greenville.
This story was originally published February 16, 2023 at 4:24 PM with the headline "Man wins hefty SC lottery prize hours before a trip. He spent his vacation ‘debt free’."
