While at Schnucks, 2030 Dorsett Road in Maryland Heights, a Missouri Lottery player decided to buy a “$1,000,000 Black Diamond” Scratchers ticket out of a different machine than she usually uses. Her reaction to the win was too much for her to keep under wraps.
“That’s where I shop and every once in a while I’ll get a Lottery ticket,” the winner started -to explain. “I thought, ‘You know what? I’m going to do this machine.’”
The next morning, she was relaxing at home and began to scratch off the ticket.
“I scratched the first one, and it was $50,000!” she said
Her husband was also in the room with her, and she quickly called him over to look at the ticket.
“She was crying at the time almost,” her husband interjected.
They were both excited by the $50,000 prize, but they were stunned when they finished scratching the ticket and discovered they had actually won a $1 million prize.
“He went ballistic! I thought he was going to fall off the couch!” she said. “And of course I remained calm and started crying!”
Her husband then got up and began pacing around.
“He was just muttering, ‘A million! I married a millionaire!’” she said.
After they had somewhat recovered from the shock of the win, they decided to play a little joke on their children.
“We set up a FaceTime with them, and we just told them we needed to talk,” she said. “They were expecting bad news!”
She said they started the conversation very somber to build the tension.
“We started off and I said, “You know your Dad and I have been married a long time,” she joked. “We had to keep them going for a little bit!”
However, they couldn’t keep up the charade for very long.
“I showed them the first prize we won and instantly my youngest goes, “Okay but what else did you win?” she shared.
They finally showed them the whole ticket, and their children were equally shocked to see the prize.
“My youngest was just sitting there with his mouth open. He couldn’t believe it!” she said.
“$1,000,000 Black Diamond” is a $10 Scratchers game, with another $1 million prize and five $50,000 prizes still unclaimed.
In FY23, players in St. Louis County won more than $207.7 million in Missouri Lottery prizes, retailers received more than $20 million in commissions and bonuses, and more than $76 million in Lottery proceeds went to education programs in the county.
