COLUMBIA, SC (February 17, 2008) – A Columbia man had just gotten off work on February 10 when he absently decided to check his Palmetto Cash 5 ticket. Admittedly, the numbers looked familiar. This wasn’t surprising, considering he had carefully selected them (3-17-24-30-37). His picks paid $200,000.
“I thought about driving down and sleeping outside the Lottery’s office,” he said. Instead, he placed the ticket in his pocket and waited for morning.
The winner, who did not want his name used, won’t divulge how he picked the winning combination. “I have my own strategy, and I’m going to keep it to myself,” he said.
Tired and still a little dazed by the events, the winner hasn’t made any definite plans for the long term. Even when asked if he would celebrate soon with his fiancée, he wasn’t sure.
The player increased his winnings when he paid an extra dollar to purchase the Power-Up multiplier option at the Food Mart II in Columbia. The multiplier drawn was a 2, which resulted in the $200,000 win. The top prize in the Palmetto Cash 5 game is $100,000, but that prize can be multiplied up to five times, depending on the multiplier selected. The odds of winning a top prize in Palmetto Cash 5 are 1 in 501,942.
Since the Lottery’s inception in 2002, the General Assembly has appropriated more than $2 billion for educational purposes through fiscal year 2009. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, more than 97 cents of every dollar spent by players on the South Carolina Education Lottery was returned to the state in the form of contributions to education, prizes, retailer commissions and payment to contractors for goods and services.
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“I thought about driving down and sleeping outside the Lottery’s office,” he said. Instead, he placed the ticket in his pocket and waited for morning.
The winner, who did not want his name used, won’t divulge how he picked the winning combination. “I have my own strategy, and I’m going to keep it to myself,” he said.
Tired and still a little dazed by the events, the winner hasn’t made any definite plans for the long term. Even when asked if he would celebrate soon with his fiancée, he wasn’t sure.
The player increased his winnings when he paid an extra dollar to purchase the Power-Up multiplier option at the Food Mart II in Columbia. The multiplier drawn was a 2, which resulted in the $200,000 win. The top prize in the Palmetto Cash 5 game is $100,000, but that prize can be multiplied up to five times, depending on the multiplier selected. The odds of winning a top prize in Palmetto Cash 5 are 1 in 501,942.
Since the Lottery’s inception in 2002, the General Assembly has appropriated more than $2 billion for educational purposes through fiscal year 2009. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, more than 97 cents of every dollar spent by players on the South Carolina Education Lottery was returned to the state in the form of contributions to education, prizes, retailer commissions and payment to contractors for goods and services.
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