SC man was helping relative when he got lottery ticket & won game’s grand prize

A man was taking a relative to a doctor’s appointment when he stopped to buy a lottery ticket, according to South Carolina Education Lottery officials.

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The Bamberg man got an unexpected surprise, winning the scratch-off lottery game’s $75,000 grand prize, officials said Thursday in a news release.

“That was pure luck,” the winner said in the release. “I’m still trying to process it.”

The trip to the doctor’s office was sidetracked by the stop at the EnMarket gas station/convenience store at 2187 Main Highway in Bamberg, officials said.

“I had never bought a ticket at that store before,” the man said.

His urge to stop for a lottery ticket at the relatively foreign playing ground paid off after the man spent $3 on the Cash Lines scratch-off game then captured the five-figure jackpot.

The man neither said how he plans to spend his newfound windfall nor if the relative was on time to the doctor’s office.

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The winner will be allowed to retain some privacy, as South Carolina is one of 11 states — along with Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Texas and Virginia — that allow lottery winners to remain anonymous.

It was one of the lottery game’s five grand prize winning tickets, officials said. Three more Cash Lines tickets carrying grand prizes are still unclaimed.

The winner overcame 528,000-to-1 odds to capture the game’s jackpot, according to the release.

The EnMarket store in Bamberg received a $750 commission for selling the claimed ticket.