Man thought he won $1,000 on lottery ticket, but found out his prize was a lot bigger
A Midlands man was in a hurry when he bought a lottery ticket, and didn’t slow much even after discovering his recently-purchased scratch-off game was a winner, South Carolina Education Lottery Officials said in a news release.
After scratching off the barcode and scanning the ticket with the store’s ticket checker, the man kept going even though the message said to “Claim at Lottery,” according to the release.
He thought he had won $1,000, officials said. His prize was much, much larger.
It wasn’t until he was at home later that the man scratched away all of the ticket and then discovered he’d actually won a $2,000,000 prize, according to the release.
“I was shocked,” the winner said in the release. “I didn’t know what to do. I started pacing around the house with the ticket.”
Soon enough, he made his way to downtown Columbia to the Lottery Claims Center on Assembly Street to cash in his prize.
The man had spent $20 to buy what turned out to be the seven-digit winning lottery game at the City Gas & Fuel on Fish Hatchery Road in Lexington, 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 Midlands man didn’t say what he plans to do with his newfound windfall. But he said he’s keeping his job.
“I’m still working,” the winner said. “But, I’m not going to struggle anymore.”
The odds of winning the $2,000,000 top prize in the Millionaire’s Club game were one-in-1,260,000, according to the release. Six of the game’s eight top prize-winning tickets remain unclaimed, according to the lottery website.
This is the second grand prize-winning Millionaire’s Club game sold in Lexington County in the past two months. Another was sold at the Stop N Go at 704 Old Barnwell Road in West Columbia, lottery officials said in September.
City Gas & Fuel received a commission of $20,000 for selling the claimed winning ticket, according to the release.
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This story was originally published October 29, 2023 at 11:09 AM with the headline "Man thought he won $1,000 on lottery ticket, but found out his prize was a lot bigger."
