A thirsty punter has told how he stopped to buy a bottle of water and walked away with a USD 200,000 scratchcard win.
Lucky Donald Spivey – from Tabor City, North Carolina State, USA – spotted a pile of scratchcards at the counter of a local store named Minuteman Food Mart and picked one out of the blue on 17th June.
At first, he went to buy a cheaper ticket with a smaller jackpot, but at the last second changed his mind and bought a USD 5 (USD 4) megabucks ticket.
Donald said in a statement obtained by Newsflash from North Carolina Education Lottery: “Something just told me to go ahead and get it.
“When I saw the USD 200,000 [GBP 157,000] top prize, I changed my mind and got that one.”
Donald collected USD 142,501 (GBP 111,645) – the total due after taxes – at lottery headquarters in Raleigh on 19th June.
He said he’ll save the money for retirement and for ‘rainy days’.
He told lottery officials: “I’m not far from retirement so that will be a nice bump.”
North Carolina Education Lottery officials said: “The Mega Bucks game debuted this month with eight USD 200,000 [GBP 157,000] top prizes.
“Six USD 200,000 [GBP 157,000] prizes remain to be claimed.”
They added: “Ticket sales from scratch-off games make it possible for the lottery to raise USD 2.5 million [GBP 1.9 million] a day on average for education.
“Columbus County and Whiteville City Schools have received grants totalling USD 15 million [GBP 11.7 million] to help meet new school construction needs.”
