A 'Vision' Told a South Carolina Man to Buy a Ticket, and He Won $500,000

Call it intuition, luck, or something more. An Upstate South Carolina man says a vision sent him to a convenience store for a lottery ticket, and it paid off to the tune of $500,000.

The man told South Carolina Education Lottery officials he was sitting on his porch when the sudden urge to play hit him.

"I had a vision," he said. "It told me to go and get a ticket at the Cracker Jack store, and I got two of them."

He bought two $10 scratch-offs at the Cracker Jack on Pendleton Street in Greenville, and one of them, a Gold Vault Extra Play game, came back a $500,000 winner.

There was no time for a victory lap. Asked how he celebrated, the winner kept it simple.

"I had to go to work," he said.

He said he plans to share some of the money with his family. "I'm blessed to have it," he added.

About the game

Gold Vault Extra Play is one of South Carolina's $10 scratch-offs, and its top prize is exactly the $500,000 this player hit. As of ScratchCheck's latest data, the game still lists two of those $500,000 top prizes as unclaimed, so the vision business aside, there is real money left in it. A $500,000 win does trim down at tax time, which we cover in how lottery winnings are taxed.

Here is how to tell if a scratch-off is really a winner. Congratulations to the Greenville winner, and to a porch-side hunch that paid off.

Sources

UPI: 'Vision' leads S.C. man to $500,000 lottery prize