A man from Bagdad, Ky. became an instant millionaire recently after he purchased a $20 Kentucky Lottery Scratch-off ticket, winning the $1 million top prize.
The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, told lottery officials he rarely plays Scratch-offs and is more of a numbers guy, usually playing draw games. "I play a lot of numbers, mostly draw games like Pick 3 and Keno," he said. “I was at the store playing my numbers and decided to try the Feelin’ Like A Million Bucks Scratch-off ticket, but it wasn’t a winner.”
“I don’t usually play Scratch-offs, but the name of game jumped out to me,” he said.
The next day, he went back to the same store to play his numbers on the Kentucky Lottery’s draw games for that day and purchased another Feelin’ Like A Million Bucks Scratch-off ticket since no one had bought any tickets off the roll since the day before.
He told lottery officials he will usually scratch the barcode off and scan the ticket to see if he won, but this time he actually scratched off the entire ticket. “I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I usually check my tickets on the machine, but this time I scratched it off and saw the million-dollar prize.” His ticket matched the number 2 in the last row to win the game’s top prize.
“As soon as I won, I was out of there.” He told officials he went straight home and signed the ticket and put it in his safe.
The winning ticket was purchased at Convenient No. 40 in Shelbyville, a favorite spot for the winner who has been frequenting the store for over 20 years. "I've been going there for years, and it's my favorite place to play," he shared. The store will receive $7,000 for selling the winning ticket. "I love that store, and I'm glad they get something out of this too," he said.
The winner chose to take the game’s lump sum payment of $700,000 rather than receiving $50,000 per year for 20 years. He took home nearly $500,000 after taxes.
As if one million dollars wasn’t enough, he also shared that he won $4,000 on Pick 3 with a $10 wager on numbers 7-0-5 on the morning he claimed his Scratch-off prize.
The Shelby County man said he doesn’t have any immediate plans for the winnings and will put it in the bank for now. "I needed this win," he said. “It’s a blessing.”
