Florida Man Wins $1M from Scratcher; Arizona Player Scoops Up $1M from Mega Millions

A man from Pinellas County, Florida, has won $1 million from a scratch-off ticket. After choosing the lump-cash option, the winner took some $650,000 back home.   

The Player Won One of 28 $1M Prizes

Charles Kelly Junior, 53, won his big prize from a Gold Rush Doubler scratcher he purchased at the Wildwood Meat Market on 28th Street South in St. Petersburg.

Gold Rush Doubler tickets cost $5 and provide players with a shot at significant prizes. The odds of winning anything at all, according to lottery officials, are 1-in-3.98.

The game, for context, features more than 13 million winning tickets and a total of $188 million in cash prizes. The game’s top prize stands at $1 million. Additionally, there are 28 $1 million tickets in total, the Florida Lottery clarified.

When Kelly visited the lottery headquarters in Tallahassee, he opted to receive the one-time lump cash option of $650,000. The store he purchased the ticket from, meanwhile, was provided with a $2,000 bonus commission for selling the winning ticket.

The Florida Lottery highlighted the importance of scratch-off games to the lottery ecosystem, emphasizing that they have so far generated just shy of $19 billion for education in the state.

A few days ago, lottery officials announced that a ticket purchased in southern Arizona had netted a lucky player a prize of $1 million. The prize was won during Tuesday’s drawing. For context, the winning numbers for that drawing were 5, 20, 26, 49 and 51. The Mega Ball, on the other hand, was 24.

The ticket, according to the Arizona Lottery, was sold at a Chevron station in San Luis.

In other news, a player from North Carolina just turned $50 into a $1 million win. The winner, Maurice Young, bought a ticket for the Lottery’s popular scratch-off game $10 Million Spectacular and won one of the bigger prizes available.

Meanwhile, a Michigan lottery player just claimed their $260,000 second chance jackpot after months of thinking the win was a scam. The original drawing took place on February 14, 2024.

Elsewhere, a lucky Australian woman scored a life-changing AUD 100 million jackpot playing Powerball.