Greensburg-area woman wins $1 million on scratch-off lottery ticket

A Greensburg-area woman took a chance on spending $20 for a Pennsylvania Lottery scratch-off ticket and is a $1 million richer for it.

“She just bought one ticket” on May 14 and that was the winner, said Kim Rodman, manager of Rick’s Tobacco Outlet at 857 S. Main St. in Southwest Greensburg.

The woman, whom Rodman declined to identify, is a regular lottery customer, she said Tuesday. When they learned she had won, they had a little celebration in the store, Rodman said.

The store will get a $5,000 bonus for selling the “$1,000,000 Winnings” ticket, the Pennsylvania Lottery said Tuesday.

Rodman said she anticipates the store will get a few more customers as a result of selling the winner.

Lottery players should not despair that they can’t be a millionaire buying that scratch-off because a chart on the Pennsylvania Lottery website shows that there still are two “Winnings” scratch-off tickets for sale somewhere in the state. Ticket buyers have more of a chance to win $50,000 because there are 14 $50,000 tickets remaining.

Scratch-Offs are distributed at random, meaning the lottery and its retailers do not know where winning tickets will be sold. The lottery said it learns where winning tickets are sold only after a prize has been claimed. The Scratch-Off prizes expire one year from the game’s end-sale date posted at palottery.com.

The winning ticket-holder will have to pay taxes on the prize because all lottery prizes worth more than $5,000 are subject to withholding taxes, the state said.

A spokesperson for the lottery said the winner did not want to be identified.