Kentucky woman building new home gets a big boost thanks to a lottery ticket win
A Nelson County woman is breathing easier after scratching off a $50,000 Kentucky Lottery win, which will help pay for her family’s new home.
In late April, Tonya Shelton of Coxs Creek stopped at a local grocery store and bought a $5,000,000 Fortune ticket with her boyfriend.
The game, which costs $50 for one play, advertises itself as having the “highest scratch-off prize in Kentucky Lottery history.” Top prize winners can opt to take either $250,000 per year for 20 years or get a lump sum cash payment of $3.4 million minus any taxes.
As of May 14, there was one top prize remaining, and players have 1 in 2.77 odds of winning any prize on the game. The minimum prize amount is $75. Shelton and her boyfriend are regular players.
Scratching the ticket off in the car, Shelton revealed one zero after another, she told Kentucky Lottery officials, according to a May 15 news release.
“I saw the big zeroes and then when you get to that comma and the other big zero… I’ve never seen anything this big,” she said.
According to Kentucky Lottery spokesperson Jennifer Cunningham, Shelton won and claimed the prize April 25. She took home a check that day for $36,000 after taxes.
The win comes as Shelton is building her first home.
“It’s a relief, just less stress. We’ve been telling each other that after we get to move into this house, we’ll have to eat tuna and ramen noodles every night. This really just helps us out,” Shelton said. “It saved the day.”
Shelton isn’t the only recent winner of this particular scratch-off game. An anonymous woman in southern Kentucky recently won $5 million playing the game, opting for the lump sum payout of $3.4 million. After taxes, that woman took home a check for roughly $2.4 million.
Seven players have won the $5,000,000 Fortune’s second-place prize of $50,000 this year, the lottery’s release said.
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