A trip to a Florida Walmart recently altered a local man’s life forever. The Florida Lottery reported this week that 68-year-old Lincoln Diaz of Miami won the $25 million top prize in the $25,000,000 GOLD RUSH MULTIPLIER scratch-off game.
Diaz traveled to Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee on January 12 to collect his fortune. Instead of taking the entire amount over time, he chose a single, lump-sum payout of $15,960,000.00. The winning ticket was sold at the Walmart on 14720 S.W. 26th Street in Miami.
The $50 game Diaz played was one of the lottery’s most ambitious offers, with two $25 million top prizes and 60 distinct $1 million prizes. The game offers a total cash prize of nearly $1.2 billion, with an overall winning chance of 1 in 4.09.
Scratch-offs, like as the one Diaz won, are among the Florida Lottery’s most popular games. They accounted for approximately 74% of all ticket sales in the fiscal year 2024-2025. Since their inception, these games have paid out more than $70.8 billion in rewards and created 2,475 billionaires.
Beyond the individual winners, the games are a significant economic driver for the state. To far, scratch-off sales have raised more than $20.98 billion for Florida’s Educational Enhancement Trust Fund.
Since 1988, the Florida Lottery has raised more than $50 billion for education, benefiting more than one million students through the Bright Futures Scholarship Program.
