Backstage Country

LISTEN LIVE

Polk County Player Buys The LAST Big Winning Ticket From Florida Lottery Scratch Off Game

If you buy Florida Lottery scratch off game tickets, you might want to hold off buying any more one particular game. Roberto Lamboy is a happy guy. His stop at…

Florida Lottery
Geno/BBGI

If you buy Florida Lottery scratch off game tickets, you might want to hold off buying any more one particular game.

Roberto Lamboy is a happy guy. His stop at a Race Track gas station proved to be a lucky choice. It was there where he bought one of those Gold Rush Supreme tickets. The $30 ticket has pretty decent odds of winning SOMETHING. About 1 in every 2-1/2 tickets is a winner. Gold Rush Supreme has prizes ranging from $30 (you basically get your money back... a 1 in 6 chance of winning that) to $15 million - but that one has a 1 in about 11.5 million chance of winning. Actually your chance of winning that amount now is zero. Lamboy got the last big $15 million winning ticket.

Lamboy is from Haines City. If you're curious WHICH Race Track location Lamboy bought the ticket at... it was the one in Kissimmee at 2001 West Vine Street. They'll get a cool $30,000 bonus commission for selling the winning ticket.

Even though the big $15 million prizes are all accounted for now, there are other prizes. $40 (1 in 10 odds), $50 (1 in 15 odds), $100 (1 in 26 odds), $200 (1 in 120 odds), $500 (1 in 368 odds), $1,000 (1 in 821 odds), $5,000 (1 in 19,929 odds), $10,000 (1 in 59,555 odds), $20,000 (1 in 59,478 odds), $100,000 (1 in 2.4 million odds), and $1 million (1 in 1.9 million odds). Only 1 of the 24 $1 million winners has yet to be claimed, according to the Florida Lottery's website. There are 2 of the 20 $100,000 winners left.

Florida lottery players have claimed two enormous jackpots since joining in the game back in 2013. Here are 10 tidbits about the big money winners.

Neither player picked the winning numbers.

Do you play your lucky numbers or do you let the machine pick? Both winners used the QuickPick option.

The $451 Million winner couldn't celebrate with champagne.

Shane Missler of Port Richey was only 20 years old when we became Florida's biggest lottery winner ever. He said he wasn't surprised with the win. He just had "a feeling." He first told his brother and then delivered the news to his father over coffee the next morning.

Being a football fan seems to help.

Both big Florida Mega Millions winners were big football fans. Shane Missler used his winnings to see his favorite team the New England Patriots play in the Super Bowl. Raymond Moyer and Robyn Collier said they planned to spend their winnings to go to as many Notre Dame games as they could.

Neither winner bought the ticket at Publix.

Since the grocery chain sells so many lottery tickets, many conspiracy theorists think there's a bias and a disproportionate number of winners that come from Publix. Neither of the 2 big winning tickets were purchased with a Pub Sub.

The first big winner had to share.

Raymond Moyer and Robyn Collier of Merritt Island had to share their winnings as a Maryland player also picked the winning numbers. Taking the lump sum payment and having to share the money meant the $414 million jackpot turned into a mere $115,448,968 win for them. We're pretty sure they weren't too disappointed. Florida Today reported Collier had less than $5 cash when she filed for bankruptcy two years before the win.

Little victories.

Only two Florida Mega Millions players have been mega winners but 64 million have won smaller prizes from $2 to $2,000,000, totaling just over $806 million.

Both winners chose the cash option.

You can take home more money by opting to receive annual payments of your winnings. But both big jackpot winners opted to just cash in and take a lump sum payment. The Port Richey winner took a $281,874,999 check.

Running low on gas?

Both big money winners bought their tickets at gas stations. One was a 7-Eleven in Port Richey. The other was at a Sunoco on Merritt Island near Melbourne.

One Florida winner of almost a billion.

Although no Florida lottery players have won a billion dollars, the state's education system is getting close. Since Florida joined Mega Millions in 2013, the game has generated almost $818 million for education.

You have 90 days to vanish.

If you plan on becoming Florida's next millionaire, know a few things. First, you only have 60 days to claim your prize if you want to cash out right away. You have 180 days if you're going to take the annual payments.  And after 90 days, your name becomes public.

GenoEditor
Hear Geno on the air weekday afternoons. Geno's passions include fat guy food, concerts, sports, travel to Europe and South America. He loves 80s and 90s music, from MTV hairbands to old school freestyle, alternative rock to TRL era jams. Geno's radio career began in his hometown of Portland, Maine. Since then he's been on the air coast to coast from Boston to Las Vegas, Tampa to California.