Lottery player checking ticket rubs his eyes in disbelief. ‘Never seen that’
An Arkansas lottery player sat in his car with a lottery ticket in hand, a practice he carried out many days of the week.
The Craighead County man scratched off the first row of the Jewel 7s ticket and was instantly met with a $100,000 prize, Arkansas lottery officials said in an April 1 news release.
“I started rubbing my eyes to make sure I was looking at it correctly,” the winner told officials.
As he grappled with the number on his $5 ticket, the man ran back into the Kum & Go gas station to verify his prize. The scanner told him to claim his prize at the state lottery’s claim center.
He then excitedly showed his big win to the convenience store clerk.
“Wow, we’ve never seen that!” the clerk said, according to lottery officials. She told him to make the trip to Little Rock to claim his prize.
So far, the winner has kept his win quiet around those who know him. He is, however, celebrating the $100,000 as his biggest win yet.
“I’d won and come to the Claim Center before, but it was nothing like this,” he said, per the release.
He plans to use his prize to pay his bills and ”share the good news” with a few close family and friends, according to the release.
Craighead County is about a 130-mile drive northeast from Little Rock.
This story was originally published April 2, 2025 at 2:07 PM with the headline "Lottery player checking ticket rubs his eyes in disbelief. ‘Never seen that’."
