Wow, $20,000! That’s what a lucky Greenwood woman has won from a scratch-off ticket in the Mississippi Lottery.
Word of her big win has spread through the city, and people are still talking about it at convenience stores that sell lottery tickets.
Meg Annison, communications director for Mississippi Lottery Corp., on Tuesday confirmed the woman’s winnings from a Triple 7 ticket and said the winner chose not to be identified. She had traveled to the lottery’s headquarters in Jackson on Monday to submit her ticket and receive her winnings.
The purchase was made Saturday at the Double Quick on U.S. 82 and Strong Avenue.
“It was actually a typical Saturday, actually a slow morning,” said manager Pronjeda Spells. “She purchased an energy drink and a ticket.”
The $2 ticket was passed through a scanner that told the customer whether she had won anything. Then she left the store.
A scratch-off ticket that yielded a $20,000 prize is held by the winner, a Greenwood woman who told lottery officials she did not want to be indentified.
At 11:30 a.m., when Spells was away from the store, she received a cellphone text message: “You sold a $20,000 ticket this morning.” She didn’t know the name of the winner and also didn’t know what would happen until Monday, when the winner dropped by the Double Quick to say she was heading for the lottery headquarters to validate the ticket.
Spells said, “There have been a lot of $2, $5, $10 and $100 wins but nothing like that one.”
At the headquarters, another, even larger payoff occurred when Jimmy Keene of Pelahatchie and his wife, Becky, arrived with a winning $100,000 Jackpot scratch-off ticket he bought at a Chevron station in Ridgeland. He had called his wife earlier. She said, “He told me he won $100,000, and I told him to quit lying to me!” www.mslottery.com reported.
The lottery was launched Nov. 25 and is now is in its third week. Annison said figures for its second week are not yet available, but sales revenues from the first week were $139,500 in Leflore County and $15,900 in Carroll County. Statewide, she said, they were “over $8.9 million resulting in approximately $1.9 million for the roads and bridges around the state.”
•Contact Susan Montgomery at 581-7233 or smontgomery@gwcommonwealth.com.
