When a convenience store didn’t have the lottery ticket a Midlands man wanted to buy, he shifted gears and picked out another game, South Carolina Education Lottery officials said in a news release. That choice, and stroke of luck, made him a millionaire.
The man won a scratch-off lottery game’s $1 million grand prize, according to the release.
The seven-figure winning ticket was purchased for $10 at the Palm Pantry gas station/convenience store on the Savannah Highway according to the release. That’s in the North area of Orangeburg County, between I-20 and I-26.
He took the ticket home and scratched it while standing in his kitchen, officials said. The last row of numbers on the card revealed the “$1MIL” top prize, according to the release.
“I couldn’t believe it,” the winner said in the release. “I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t.”
While the winner said he was “ecstatic,” he didn’t reveal any specific plans for spending his newfound windfall.
All he would say publicly was that the payday will give him freedom.
“Things that I have wanted to do and couldn’t afford to do, I can now,” he said.
The winner will be allowed to retain some privacy, as South Carolina is one of 11 states — along with Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Texas and Virginia — that allow lottery winners to remain anonymous.
The winner overcame 1,500,000-to-1 odds to capture the Millionaire Bonus game’s jackpot, according to the release. This was the second of the game’s four top prizes to be claimed, officials said.
The Palm Pantry in North received a commission of $10,000 for selling the claimed ticket.
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Noah Feit is a Real Time reporter with The State focused on breaking news, public safety and trending news. The award-winning journalist has worked for multiple newspapers since starting his career in 1999.
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