Florida man finds his luck in lottery at another store

TAMPA, Florida – The first million dollar first prize winner of Florida Lottery’s new Struck By Luck game has been revealed – and if he had bought his ticket at his usual place, he wouldn’t have been lucky.

“The store where we usually buy our tickets was very busy, so we decided to take care of it instead,” Demetrios Valeas told state lottery officials. “We really felt ‘lucky’ after this split decision turned into a million dollar victory! “

Valaes, 61, of Tampa, bought the winning $ 10 ticket at Rainbow Food Mart (3302 South West Shore Blvd. in Tampa).

He chose a lump sum payout of $ 880,000, Florida Lottery said.

Struck By Luck debuted on August 16 and won four of those top million dollar prizes.

A woman from Florida has also just been announced as the first million dollar winner in the new scratch game Gold Rush Limited.

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