A Central Florida man won a $1 million prize playing a $5 scratch-off game from the Florida Lottery.
The Florida Lottery recently announced that 53-year-old Charles Kelly, Jr., of St. Petersburg, claimed a $1 million top prize from the $5 Gold Rush Doubler scratch-off game at Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee.
The Pinellas County man chose to receive his winnings as a one-time, lump-sum payment of $685,000.00.
Kelly purchased his winning ticket from Wildwood Meat Market, located at 1228 28th Street South in St. Petersburg. The retailer received a $2,000 bonus commission for selling the winning scratch-off ticket.
The $5 Gold Rush Doubler scratch-off game features over 13 million winning tickets and more than $188 million in cash prizes, including 28 top prizes of $1 million. The game’s overall odds of winning are 1-in-3.98.
Scratch-off games are an important part of the Lottery’s portfolio of games, comprising approximately 72 percent of ticket sales in fiscal year 2022-2023. Since their inception, Scratch-off games have generated more than $18.95 billion for education.
The Florida Lottery is responsible for contributing more than $46 billion to enhance education and sending more than 983,000 students to college through the Bright Futures Scholarship Program. The Florida Lottery reinvests 99 percent of its revenue into Florida’s economy through prize payouts, commissions to more than 13,600 Lottery retailers, and transfers to education. Since 1988, Florida Lottery games have paid more than $97.2 billion in prizes and made more than 4,000 people millionaires.
