A Florida man thanks his pregnant dachshund after winning the $2 million grand prize on a scratch card.
Leonard Linton, 42, said he bought the ticket on a whim from a Stop N Shop after receiving a call saying he had to walk home to his pregnant dachshund, Ivy.
“I still can’t believe it,” Linton said. “This is life changing, but I’m definitely going to get Ivy a new kennel!”
Linton elected to receive the winnings in a $1,645,000 lump sum rather than an annuity, the Florida Lottery said in a press release Monday.
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The scratch game, called 100X THE CASH, costs Linton $10 and features eight top prizes totaling $2 million. According to the Florida Lottery, the odds of winning a cash prize are 1 in 3.44.
To win a cash prize, the player must match their number to a winning number and win the displayed prize plus potential bonuses.
The probability of winning the $2 million jackpot is about 1 in 5,758,778 the lottery.
Linton credited his million-dollar win to his pregnant dachshund and said he took a different route home than normal, making a quick pit stop along the way to check on the sick pup.
According to the Florida Lottery, the retailer where the ticket was purchased receives a $4,000 bonus commission on the sale of a winning ticket.
The scratch game was introduced in January as scratch games account for about 75 percent of lottery ticket sales. The Florida Lottery said lottery tickets generated more than $1.3 billion for the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund in the 2020-2021 fiscal year.
news week has reached out to the Florida Lottery for comment.
Back in April, a man in France won a $217 million lottery and donated most of it to his charity.
A Michigan woman who won more than $1 million from the lottery credited her mother with buying a lottery ticket. After winning “a few dollars,” the woman bought more tickets and successfully won the jackpot prize: $1.6 million.
In Virginia, one lucky college student received the ultimate surprise of winning the lottery during the vacation.
Brian Donohue, who studies mathematics at the University of Virginia, was the $1 million winner after a ticket his mother slipped into his Christmas stocking matched the jackpot numbers.
Donohue’s mother bought the winning ticket at a local grocery store in Oakton, Virginia on December 22. Little did she know that her son would win the Virginia Lottery Bank-a-Million game by drawing the ticket.
Donohue told lottery officials that he plans to use the proceeds to pay his tuition.
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