Lucky Player Turns $5 into a $2.4M Win from Florida Lottery

Any lottery win brings excitement, but nothing can quite compare to a multi-million dollar prize. One lucky lottery player from Alabama will undoubtedly always remember the $150,000 A YEAR FOR LIFE scratch-off game from the Florida Lottery that turned him into a millionaire in an instant. On Monday, the lottery revealed that Gary Thomas, a 49-year-old Dothan, Alabama resident, collected the top prize from the popular scratch-off game.

Visiting the lottery headquarters in Tallahassee, the lucky man collected the $2,440,000.00 grand prize from the $150,000 A YEAR FOR LIFE scratch-off game. The Dothan resident turned $5 into more than $2 million. Although he had the option for $150,000 in annual payments for life, the 49-year-old selected the option to collect a lump sum payment.

The odds of winning a prize from the $150,000 A YEAR FOR LIFE lottery ticket are 1 in 3.95. There are more than 9.5 million winning tickets as well as $132.6 million in winnings up for grabs. The game offers four more top prizes, featuring $150,000 a year for life.

When visiting the Lotto Discount Liquor, located at 5837 US Highway 231 in Campbellton, Florida, Thomas purchased his winning ticket. Besides the lucky winner, the retailer that sold the ticket would also receive a prize which is a $4,000 bonus commission.

The Dothan Player Is Incredibly Excited to Win the Million-Dollar Prize

Currently, scratch-off games represent a major part of the lottery’s portfolio. For the fiscal year 2022-2023, those games were 72% of the ticket sales. Since the Florida Lottery introduced scratch-off games, to date, they have generated more than $18 billion for the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund.

“It’s still sinking in. I couldn’t believe it! I still can’t believe it!“

Gary Thomas, winner of a $2.4 million prize from $150,000 A YEAR FOR LIFE

Upon visiting the lottery headquarters to collect his winnings, Thomas was incredibly excited. Holding the oversized check, the 49-year-old said that he had yet to realize that he won such a big prize. Moreover, Thomas said that he couldn’t believe and still is yet to believe that he was able to win more than $2 million with a $5 ticket.

Elsewhere, after the billion-dollar jackpot from the Powerball dropped last week, users online started questioning the legitimacy of wins. This happened in the context of California seeing a number of grand prizes drop recently. Overall, four out of the top five Powerball prizes have been won in California, raising suspicion among skeptical users online.