S.C. officials still looking for $600,000 lottery winner

Feb 13, 2004, 7:27 am (Post a comment)

South Carolina Lottery

State officials looking for winner who purchased six, $100,000 draws

South Carolina Education Lottery officials still are waiting for the winner of Tuesday night's Carolina 5 to claim the $600,000 jackpot.

Talk about your odds.

Someone purchased six identically numbered tickets to win the South Carolina Education Lottery's Carolina 5 jackpot in Ridgeland on Tuesday.

"The winners or winner has not stepped forward yet," lottery spokeswoman Tara Robertson said Wednesday afternoon. The Tuesday and Friday drawings are made at 11 p.m. "We're hoping to hear something soon."

Tuesday's winning numbers, 1,2,3,16 and 26, were bought six times at Handy Dan's Exxon on East Main Street at the foot of Interstate 95's Exit 21.  Each is worth $100,000, taxes paid.

Store owner Danny Morris said Wednesday it's the biggest he's ever seen.

"We've cashed some $500 tickets, nothing like this," he said. "This is a big one. We don't know who it is yet, but I'm thinking it's a local person. We have a lot of regular customers who play."

Morris said he's sure one person holds all the winning tickets. "They were purchased consecutively," all in a row, he said.

Robertson agreed it's an unusual scenario.

"It's the first we've had, where we had six top prize winning tickets," she said.

Not to mention, all of them bought at the same location.

"I know where I'd be right now if I won," Morris quipped, "the Caribbean."

Robertson said retail sellers of winning tickets get 1 percent of the amount.

Six is the maximum number of jackpots in Carolina 5. Odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 376,992.

Lottery spokeswoman Tara Robertson said Thursday afternoon that no one has stepped forward to claim the total, tax-paid $600,000 in winnings.

Lottery Post Staff

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