Shelby County man wins $1 million on scratch-off ticket

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – One Kentucky man is celebrating becoming an instant winner after purchasing a Kentucky Lottery Scratch-off ticket.

Lottery officials say the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, won the $1 million top prize.

“I don’t usually play Scratch-offs, but the name of game jumped out to me,” he said.

The next day, officials say he went back to the same store to play his numbers on the Kentucky Lottery’s draw games for that day and bought another Feeling’ Like a Million Bucks Scratch-off ticket.

He told lottery officials he will usually scratch the barcode off and scan the ticket to see if he won, but he 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 two 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 to sign the ticket and put it in a safe.

The winning ticket was purchased at Convenient No. 40 in Shelbyville.

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,” the man 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.”