A lucky punter has told how he scooped a USD-77,777 fortune after buying the ‘wrong’ scratch card at a supermarket.
The winner – not named by the Missouri Lottery in the US – had intended to buy a different card but could not believe his luck when his numbers came up.
In a statement obtained by Newsflash, Missouri Lottery said on 4th April: “A Missouri Lottery player won a USD 77,777 [GBP 59,300] prize on a ‘Hot 7s’ Scratchers ticket after accident[al]ly selecting a different ticket than he had intended.”
The lottery company added: “The player purchased the winning ticket at Food Giant, 108 N. Highway 25 in Bloomfield. He said he’s still processing the win.”
The lucky winner called his big win “a fluke” and admitted it “hasn’t sunken in yet”.
He explained: “I wasn’t paying attention when I was selecting the ticket, it was a fluke!
“The fact that it happened at all is pretty crazy, it hasn’t sunken in yet.”
Missouri Lottery said: “Hot 7s is a USD 10 Scratchers ticket that started on Feb. 28. The game offers prizes ranging from USD 10 up to top prizes of USD 777,777. It currently has over USD 26 million in unclaimed prizes, including a top prize and four additional prizes of USD 77,777.
“In FY21, players in Stoddard County won more than USD 5.9 million in Missouri Lottery prizes, retailers received more than USD 571,000 in commissions and bonuses, and more than USD 516,000 in Lottery proceeds went to education programs in the county.”
It is unclear what the lucky scratch card winner intends to spend his USD 77,777 on, and the news of the win comes days after
a woman won over USD 110,000 (GBP 83,600) on the lottery on a coffee-stained ticket she had binned by mistake.
Frantic Mary Elliott – from Buckingham County, in the US state of Virginia – first realised that she had thrown her ticket away, but later found it in the trash.
Then she was terrified it would be declared invalid, after the barcode could not be scanned due to the coffee stains.
But she eventually scooped USD 110,000 (GBP 83,600) on Virginia Lottery’s Cash 5 with EZ Match game.
Virginia Lottery said: “When Mary Elliot discovered she’d matched all five winning numbers in the Virginia Lottery’s Cash 5 with EZ Match game, she had a brief moment of panic. She had thrown the ticket away!
“So the Buckingham County woman went digging through the trash and found it. But now there was a new problem: The ticket had coffee stains on it, and the barcode wouldn’t scan when she tried to confirm her win.”
The lottery company added: “But this story has a happy ending.
“Ms. Elliott took the ticket to the Virginia Lottery’s Prize Zone West in Henrico, where Lottery officials were able to confirm the win and award her the USD 110,000 prize!”
Ms Elliott said: “When I saw I’d won, I couldn’t stop shaking to save my life!”
Virginia Lottery said: “She won the top prize in the February 24 drawing with a ticket she bought at the Food Lion in Dillwyn. The winning numbers were 6-13-18-21-25. She selected the numbers on her ticket using important birthdays.”
