Anyone read about the women who just won 1 million on a $4,000,000 million spectacular scratcher? The story says she never played a scratch off before in her life, and managed to win big on her first one ever. I seem to hear these stories of blind luck more often than not (e.g., guy wins powerball with the last $5 in his bank account).
It makes me wonder if they're legit, or if the lottery essentially plants these stories to drum up buzz about playing? In other words, the lucky winner comes to the lottery office and the officials there say, "Congratulations! Here's how we'd like for you to say you won...". Better to put out a story of ridiculously good fortune as opposed to a story where someone who spends hundreds every week/month finally hit big. To me, that's just clever marketing.
Maybe I'm wrong and my eye has just been trained to fixate on those types of winners. Seems so incredibly unlikely though that a 1st time scratcher would take home a million. Either way, good for her! I hope one day I can figure out the answer to my question first hand!