A carpenter from Worcester who’d been playing the lottery for a month with cash he’d won from a $500 scratch ticket ended up winning a $1 million prize on another scratch ticket game.
Deivson Alves Martins won the $1 million prize from the lottery’s $50 scratch ticket game called “Billion Dollar Extravaganza.” He opted to receive it in the form of a one-time payment of $650,000 before taxes when he claimed the winning ticket on Feb. 26.
Martins had gone into a store called Family Farms, located at 443 Park Ave. in the city, and won a $500 prize on a ticket in January, he told the Massachusetts State Lottery.
Massachusetts State Lottery
He’d been playing the lottery with the money he’d won since, and chose the “Billion Dollar Extravaganza” game because it was in dispenser #11 — his lucky number, he said.
The Worcester man told the lottery that his “good fortune” has given him “peace of mind” about his and his family’s future. Family Farms will receive a $10,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket, the lottery said.
As of March 21, there are still four $1 million prizes remaining to be claimed in the game and four $2 million prizes. All three $25 million grand prizes have been claimed.
“Billion Dollar Extravaganza” has the highest prize payout percentage, or the amount of the winnings returned to the player, of any Massachusetts State Lottery game. The odds of winning any prize in the game are 1 in 4.10.