Related videos:
A woman residing in Ocala, in Marion County, won a $1 million prize with a Florida Lottery scratch-off ticket.
The ticket, in which she invested only $20, was purchased earlier this year at a Publix supermarket, according to an announcement made by the Florida Lottery on Friday.
Angelique Hernández, 44 years old, claimed the prize from the scratch-off game Gold Rush Legacy on February 5 at the Lottery headquarters in Tallahassee, although the case has only been publicly announced now.
The winner chose to receive her winnings in a single lump sum of $640,000, instead of the full million.
The winning ticket was purchased at the Publix located at 10301 SE U.S. Highway 441 in Belleview, a small town south of Ocala in Marion County.
The Gold Rush Legacy game is priced at $20 per ticket and was launched in April 2024. According to the Florida Lottery, it offers four grand prizes of $10 million and 20 prizes of $1 million, in addition to over $894 million in total cash prizes.
"The general odds of winning are one in 2.97," the statement noted, although the specific odds of winning the $1 million prize are one in 3,008,565.
At the time of the announcement, there were four unclaimed prizes of $1 million remaining from the original 20 in the game.
This is not the first major winner produced by Gold Rush Legacy.
In May 2025, Enrique Albo, 57 years old and a resident of Hialeah, claimed the grand prize of $10 million from the same game. That same month, Vaughn Conlin, 41 years old and a resident of Royal Palm Beach, won $1 million by buying his ticket at a 7-Eleven and also chose the lump sum payment of $640,000.
Scratch-offs are the flagship product of the Florida Lottery. According to the official statement, "they represent approximately 74% of ticket sales in the fiscal year 2024-2025."
In 2025, the sales of shaved ice reached a historic record of $7.093 billion, generating over $1.210 billion for education.
The Publix where the winning ticket was sold will also receive a bonus commission of $2,000 for the claimed prize, according to Florida Lottery regulations.
Since the creation of scratch-off games in Florida, more than $72.2 billion in prizes has been distributed, 2,510 millionaires have been made, and over $21.28 billion has been generated for the state's Educational Enhancement Trust Fund, which finances public schools, universities, and scholarships.
The game Gold Rush Legacy is scheduled to close on December 1, 2033.
Filed under: