Fort Myers Millionaire: Local Woman Wins Jackpot with Florida Lottery Scratch-off

Have you ever imagined winning the Florida lottery? I sure have. Every time I buy a ticket on my way home from Fort Myers, I can't help but spend my winnings in my head. My big dream? To collect every He-Man Action figure ever made. It's a simple and stupid dream, but it's mine. But I wonder what kind of dreams Carly Cooper of Fort Myers is having right now? Because according to Fox35, the 29-year-old just hit the jackpot with a $1 million scratch-off ticket!

I have to admit I'm a little jealous... Okay, very jealous. But it's got to feel pretty good to have that kind of money so early in life. So how did Carly do it? The winning ticket sold was the $1,000,000 A Year for Life Spectacular scratch-off that she picked up at the 7-Eleven on Three Oaks Parkway. Yes, the same 7-Eleven where I buy many of my own losing tickets from too. Sucks for me, but pretty awesome for her!

Now, rather than waiting for the cash to roll in slowly over the years, Carly wanted her winnings as a lump-sum payment, walking away with $640,000 in her pocket. Hope she had some big pants. But it's not just Carly who's celebrating. The 7-Eleven where she purchased the winning ticket is in for a sweet deal too. They'll be cashing in a $2,000 bonus commission for being the lucky Southwest Florida scratch-off spot.

Carly Cooper is one lucky girl. I hope she gets to work on fulfilling her dreams, whatever they may be. For now, my dreams of hanging with my pals, He-man and Skeletor will have to wait. But who knows? Maybe one day I'm destined to live in my own lottery-fueled Castle Grayskull? You can't win if you don't play. So if you happen to see a grown man yelling "I have the power!" inside a 7-Eleven... I may have just won too.

For those of you who follow my posts (thanks Mom!) you're probably aware that I love Florida Lottery Scratch Offs. I also love it when I hear that someone has gone down to the Fort Myers Florida Lottery office to cash in a big ticket. Just yesterday we learned of Barbara Arnesen of Lake Placid, who cashed in her one million dollar winning ticket. She was playing the One Million A Year For Life ticket when she hit it big. So, how do you know which ticket to get?

Well, one thing you could do is play a ticket that is brand new. It seems like someone hits a fairly decent prize right out of the gate. Take for instance the Florida Lottery scratch offs that just came out this week.

As of today, the 500x card has already had 6 people cash in $20,000 winners. The 100X has had 6 people redeem $10,000 prizes. Even the $5 - 50X ticket has had 3 people cash in $10,000 winners. That's 3 days after they first hit stores, and, more importantly, those are the tickets that have been redeemed. How many winning tickets are at home in a safe because they can't make it to the lottery office until next week? That's a lot of money in just a few short days, but - none of the "X The Cash" tickets have had any jackpots cashed in yet. Yet. My money is on that happening soon. But what happens if you get to the gas station and they don't have these tickets? Do you look at the ones they do have and just guess? You don't need to.

One of the big reasons new tickets are so popular is because people know that all of the jackpot winning tickets are still available. But again, what about the others? Some of the tickets have no grand prize winners left. It's not as much fun scratching a ticket if you can't win the big prize. But how do you know? The Florida Lottery lists all the data on their website. And I'm going to break it down for you. These are the Florida Lottery tickets where all of the grand prizes have already been claimed. This data is current as of 1/18/2024.

If this game looks familiar, it's because it came out back in September of 2022. All of the $500,000 grand prizes have been claimed. And there's only 2 of the $10,000 prizes left.

8 people have claimed the $2 million dollar prize on this one. And that's all there is. Of the 204 $10,000 prizes, there's only 8 of those remaining.

The 2 dollar ticket of the same game. Same thing, too. All of the $100,000 grand prize tickets are gone. It is interesting to see that 15 of the $2,500 winners are still out there.

I think people buy the crossword tickets because they take longer. With this one, however, all of the 2 million dollar grand prizes are gone. There's still 2 of the 20 $100,000 winning tickets remaining.

This ticket has quite the draw. For just $2 it's a chance to win $1,000 a week for life. Unfortunately, they've all been claimed. And all 8 of the winners took the cash option of $930,000. Nobody has patience. Ha.

This has been a popular game. So popular that most of the big prizes have been claimed. There are no 5 million dollar tickets left and only one 1 million dollar ticket remaining. All of the $100,000 winners are gone, too. It's a $20 ticket that takes a long time to find out if you won something. Maybe pass on this one.

Lol. All of the rest have been winners remaining. If I didn't mention your favorite scratch off - you have a chance.

I'm liking the new ones. The $50 500x The Cash ticket has 2 $25 million and 160 $1 million dollar winning tickets. The $10 100x The Cash has 10 $2 million dollar winning tickets.

Good luck everyone! And Play Responsibly.