Columbia lottery winner picks between $25,000 a year for life, or a six-digit jackpot
A Columbia man was going to be a big winner either way after his numbers were picked in a recent lottery drawing.
But he was faced with a dilemma about which prize to choose after winning the Lucky for Life game — $25,000 a year for life, or a one-time payout of $390,000, South Carolina Education Lottery officials said Monday in a news release.
The winner sought advice on whether to choose the “for life” prize option or the one-time lump sum payment before he decided to choose the six-figure prize, lottery officials said.
“I’m a lucky person,” the man said in the release.
He actually could have been luckier after the winning numbers — 10, 11, 17, 27, 32, and Lucky Ball 15 — were drawn Feb. 18. His ticket didn’t match the Lucky Ball, which would have increased his prize to $7,000 a week for life, according to the game’s rules.
The man bought the Lucky for Life ticket at Two Notch Mart on Two Notch Road, according to the release. That’s near Spring Valley High School.
This is the second Lucky for Life winning ticket sold at a Two Notch Road business in the past three months.
On Christmas Eve, an identical winning ticket was sold to a Midlands woman less than a half a mile away at Jimmy’s Mart. She also chose the one-time cash payment of $390,000, lottery officials said.
Both winners were able to retain some privacy, as South Carolina is one of eight states — along with Delaware, Kansas, Georgia, Maryland, North Dakota, Ohio and Texas — that allow lottery winners to remain anonymous.
The man admitted he was sitting on the couch when he checked his lottery ticket and discovered he won, according to the release. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“I must have checked the ticket 100 times,” he said. “The next day I checked the date on it to be sure.”
The winner did not share any plans for how he’ll spend his newfound fortune. He said that he plays lottery games “to help education.”
Lottery officials said the odds of winning the Lucky for Life prize are 1-in-1,813,028.
Once the prize was claimed, Two Notch Mart received a commission of $3,900 for selling the winning tickets, according to the release.
