By Todd Northrop
ATLANTA, Ga. — A food mart store manager in Cave Spring, Georgia, sold a winning Georgia Lottery ticket worth $3 million, and witnessed the genuine reaction of the surprised winner.
Marathon Food Mart, 150 Gadsden Road S.W. in Cave Spring, sold a winning $3 million top prize from the instant ticket $3,000,000 Taxes Paid.
Douglas Goffaux of Centre, Ala., claimed his prize July 25 at the Georgia Lottery's Dalton District Office.
"The winner scratched it right in front of me," said store manager Ashish Merchant. "For almost 20 minutes he was shaking. He was sitting in front of the counter."
Before scratching the ticket, Merchant asked Goffaux what he'd do with $1 million.
"He was about to fall from his chair," Merchant said of Goffaux upon discovering his $3 million surprise.
A sign outside of the store proclaims Marathon Food Mart as a lucky one.
"I feel very good that my customer got the winning ticket," he exclaimed.
$3,000,000 Taxes Paid is a Georgia Lottery instant game loaded with cash prizes, including top prizes of $3,000,000 after taxes. Players also can enter non-winning tickets into weekly extra chance drawings to win $20,000 after taxes.
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Congrats to Mr. Goffaux!
I hope he was one of us but God bless him anyway.
Wow! How wonderful. :) Congratulations to Mr. Goffaux! (I also now know never to never scratch a ticket in the store. If I ever won that much money, I'd probably pass-out and by the time I gained consciousness, the ticket would be gone.
... 
)
This also goes to show that driving a few miles to another state can pay off big time.
And that's why you see so many vehicles with Tennessee tags in borderline stores in neighboring states.
The Tennessee Lottery has sucked ever since the Dragon Lady took over and threw out the ball machines and put in computers.
Nobody trusts it like they used to, especially after the big computer cheating scandal she got caught at.
And all our state games suck anyway since she took over.
Everybody in my area spends their lottery money in Virginia.
Amen Brother,lets go to Georgia
Wow I'm glad to see someone else on my side.I go to Georgia almost every saturday morning,I have a $40.00 win ticket on my kitchen table right now...
Way to go Mr. G !!!
You had better be careful regarding your identity though - If rdgrnr decides you are a person that he deems not "one of us," he may lobby to have you disqualified.
By "one of us" I meant a member of Lottery Post.
But I think you knew that, didn't you?
Imagine that, a cool $3,000,000 and not having to pay taxes. And he lives in a state that is not tax greedy. He should be set for life if he is smart.
congrats to the winner ! i'd imagine that taxes are still paid, just that the advertised JP is after taxes have been taken out. but a win is a win is a win ! and what a sweet win it is.
Thast exactly what it is. I remember posting about this particular scratcher a while back when I drove to GA for some Mega Millions tickets. I bought a couple of these.
The back of the ticket says the actual prize is something like "4,500,000"...and after taxes it comes to $3,000,000.
I think all scratchers should be like this =) This man will indeed get $3 mill after taxes. Pretty awesome
Actually, I did not!
Knowing you are capable of expressing the kind of sentiment found in this previous post, I think my first reaction could be expected.
https://www.lotterypost.com/news/232109/2137060
Perhaps readers here will benefit from the context as well.
https://www.lotterypost.com/blogentry/56215/viewcomments
150 Gadsden road!
Hard to keep up with all the flak around here sometimes..and some posters seem to blend into each other...the posts
are the same, the subjects different.
From God, to flags to dead Presidents - there's always a debate/knock down, drag out/one upper going on.
One tried and true contributor is my favorite....
......rdgrnr! He can take a lickin' and keep on tickin'.
For all of you who've called him stupid in the past..he is clearly the most intelligent one in the bunch.
I saw a poster buckle today...I saw some other posters lose control....I saw others just go away due to sheer
frustration.
For those that claim to hate him, you gotta admit...he keeps you coming back for more.
Don't waste your time messing with Captain America.
.....and about that $3 Million!! WOW!! What a scratcher, that must've been a real thrill. I'm happy the scatcher didn't
drop dead. I might have.