The Florida Lottery recently announced that Joel Zebell of Land O’ Lakes won the top prize of $5,000,000 in the $5,000,000 CA$H MONEY scratch-off game.
The Central Florida man chose to receive his winnings as a one-time, lump-sum payment of $3,053,000.
The Pasco County winner purchased his winning ticket at Circle K, which is located at 7767 Land O Lakes Boulevard in Land O Lakes, north of Tampa.
He claimed his winnings at the Florida Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee.
The $5,000,000 CA$H MONEY scratch-off game costs $20 and features four life-changing top prizes worth $5 million. According to the Florida Lottery, only two top rewards remain.
This scratch-off game has approximately 7.3 million winning tickets, with more than $328 million in cash prizes. The overall odds of winning are 1 in 2.93.
Scratch-off games are a key part of the lottery’s range of games, accounting for over 74% of ticket sales in fiscal year 2023-2024. Furthermore, since their establishment, scratch-off games have awarded over $66.9 billion in prizes, created 2,350 billionaires, and raised more than $20.09 billion for the state’s Educational Enhancement Trust Fund (EETF).
The Florida Lottery is responsible for more than $49 billion in education funding and sending over 983,000 students to college through the Bright Futures Scholarship Program. The Florida Lottery reinvests 99 percent of its money back into the state’s economy through prize payouts, commissions to over 13,550 lottery merchants, and educational transfers. Since 1988, Florida Lottery games have given out over $100.2 billion in prizes, making more than 4,300 millionaires.