KY man’s lottery ticket yields prize so big he uses glasses to confirm he’s a millionaire
A routine scratch-off ticket will take care of one Kentucky man’s debt and his son’s college fund after proving to be a big winner this month.
The man, identified by the Kentucky Lottery only as from Northern Kentucky, often stops at GGS American Food & Deli in Ghent in Carroll County on his morning commute for a snack and, sometimes, a lottery ticket.
His March 1 ticket, from the game 300X The Cash, was a lucky $3 million winner.
“I had been scratching it off quickly and I got [past] the winning number by two more numbers on the second line and it dawned on me, ‘wait, there’s the twenty-four,’” he said, according to a Tuesday lottery release.
“I started scratching again, when I saw a bunch of little zeroes and I was like, ‘no way!’ I was shocked when I saw that [$3,000,000 prize], I put the ticket down and got my glasses out and looked at it again to confirm that what I was seeing was real.”
Like many scratch-off games, 300X The Cash challenges players to match their numbers or bonus numbers to the ticket’s winning numbers to secure varying prizes. Each ticket costs $30. The top prize of $3 million can be redeemed as a lump sum $2.1 million payment. The overall odds of any win on the game are 1 in 2.47, but most prizes amount to $30, $40 or $50, according to the state lottery.
The man, who had been scratching off the ticket in his truck, told lottery officials he went back inside to have an employee check the ticket for him.
The clerk verified his ticket could not cash the huge prize at the store, the winner reported to lottery officials, but the man made sure to double-check the ticket at the kiosk before he left. It confirmed a cash win of $2.1 million.
“That’s when it sank in,” he told lottery officials. “I’m in awe.”
The man visited lottery headquarters in Louisville March 4 to collect his prize. Instead of taking the $3 million win over 20 years, the man opted to take a cash payout of $2.1 million, giving him a post-tax take home of more than $1.5 million.
With the winnings, he told lottery officials, he plans to be debt free, taking care of his mortgage, car loan and his son’s college fund.
The Ghent store which sold him the winning ticket secured a $21,000 bonus.
The Kentucky Lottery has reported several recent big wins on its scratch-off tickets, including a $150,000 win announced last week.
If you or someone you know has a problem gambling, help is available at 1-800-522-4700.
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