SC woman’s choice to buy extra lottery ticket results in seven-digit grand prize
A Midlands woman had a hard time making up her mind when trying to decide if she should buy one or two scratch-off tickets, South Carolina Education Lottery officials said Thursday in a news release.
She initially wanted to buy two scratch-off games, but she asked the clerk at the J and S Food Mart on Forest Drive in Columbia to put one of them back, according to the release. When the ticket she bought wasn’t a winner, the woman said that she wondered about the other ticket she left behind in the gas station/convenience store, officials said.
“So I went back in and got it,” she said in the release. “I scratched it and thought ‘Am I looking at this right?’ ”
She put her glasses on to be sure the second ticket that she bought for $10 really won the game’s $1 million grand prize.
Her eyes were not deceiving her, and she had captured the seven-figure jackpot.
The winner will be allowed to retain some privacy, as South Carolina is one of 11 states — along with Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Texas and Virginia — that allow lottery winners to remain anonymous.
The woman didn’t provide specific details about her plans for spending the newfound windfall, but did tell lottery officials that she’ll be debt free and save the rest for a rainy day.
The woman overcame 1,530,000-to-1 odds to win the Million Dollar Mania game’s grand prize, according to the release. Two of the game’s four top prizes remains unclaimed, officials said.
J and S Food Mart received a commission of $10,000 for selling the claimed ticket.
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This story was originally published September 11, 2025 at 12:16 PM with the headline "SC woman’s choice to buy extra lottery ticket results in seven-digit grand prize."
