The Florida Lottery recently announced that Helen Mathews, of Lake Wales, claimed a $5 million top prize from the Gold Rush Limited scratch-off game.
The Polk County woman chose to receive her winnings as a one-time, lump-sum payment of $3,960,000.
The Central Florida winner purchased her winning ticket from Murphy USA, located at 2048 Sam Walton Way in Lake Wales. The retailer received a $10,000 bonus commission for selling the winning scratch-off ticket.
She claimed her winning prize at Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee.
The $20 scratch-off game, Gold Rush Limited, launched in September 2021 and features 32 top prizes of $5 million and 100 prizes of $1 million. Additionally, this ticket is filled with over 33,000 prizes of $1,000 to $100,000. There is one top prize remaining and seven $1 million prizes remaining according to the Florida Lottery.
The game’s overall odds of winning are 1-in-2.65.
Scratch-off games are an important part of the Lottery’s portfolio of games, comprising approximately 74 percent of ticket sales in fiscal year 2023-2024. Additionally, since inception, scratch-off games have awarded more than $65.5 billion in prizes, created 2,283 millionaires, and generated more than $19.80 billion for the state’s Educational Enhancement Trust Fund (EETF).
The Florida Lottery is responsible for contributing more than $48 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 over $98.6 billion in prizes and created more than 4,200 millionaires.
