International student will send money back home to support family
By Kate Northrop
FORT WRIGHT, Ky. — A recent college graduate is grateful to have come across a quick way to pay off his student loans after his four best friends witnessed him winning $125,000 on a lottery scratch-off ticket.
A former international student could hear his own heartbeat as he and his four friends screamed and shouted in their car, a winning lottery ticket for $125,000 in-hand.
Cincinnati, Ohio resident Rohith Kandula was stopped at the Shell gas station on Dixie Highway in Fort Wright, Kentucky with his four best friends when he thought it would be fun to try out the Kentucky Lottery.
The first scratch-off ticket that Kandula picked out had won him a $10 prize, so he decided to reinvest it in a $5 "Kentucky Jackpot" scratch-off ticket.
Upon scratching it off and scanning it at the retailer's ticket checker, the five University of Cincinnati graduates bolted back to their car.
"It's like we didn't know what to do at that time because it was a big winner," Kandula told Lottery officials. "We took the scratch-off to the car and we all started shouting... loudly. My heart was beating like 120, no, 160. I was in shock. I could hear my heartbeat."
Even a few days later, he still couldn't believe the scratch-off he was holding was, in fact, a $125,000 top prize-winning ticket.
"I was still thinking is this true or not," Kandula recalled.
He downloaded the Kentucky Lottery mobile app to check one more time, and scanning the ticket told him all he needed to know.
Kandula and his four friends took a road trip to Kentucky Lottery headquarters in Louisville to claim the prize, the excitement of winning that lucky day forever embedded in their memory. The five of them went to school together in India and all transferred to the University of Cincinnati's information technology master's program in 2023, the Lottery said in a press release. They graduated in December 2024.
Kandula received a total of $82,500 after taxes. With the winnings, Kandula told the Lottery that he plans to pay off his student loans and send money to his family.
"My family back home has worked so hard for me, so I want to give back to them," he explained.
In addition, Kandula and his friends are planning to take a big trip together as a way of celebrating being by his side on the day he won the lottery.
The retailer that sold the winning ticket receives a $1,250 bonus from the Lottery.
As of now, two more top prizes of $125,000 remain in the $5 "Kentucky Jackpot" scratch-off game, which launched in January. There are also 22 second-tier prizes of $1,000 and 70 third-tier prizes of $500 left to claim.
The overall odds of winning any prize in the game are 1 in 3.52.
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Hopefully they won't think this is a license to smack cops around. Congratulations .
I don't get it, what does that have to do with their win?
Agreed. What a bizarre comment. Congrats to this young man for being highly responsible and paying off his student loans. Student loans are loans and not free gifts as some seem to think.
I agree. I also think it's great he wants to help his family as well. I hope he does well in life.
I believe it was a joke in reference to the PB lottery winners in this article that were from KY as well. I don't believe there's any ill intent.
https://www.lotterypost.com/news/354449
BINGO!!!, somebody finally gets it. I was trying to see how long it will take for the smart and intelligent people of LP to get it, instead of burrowing down the rabbit hole of negativity . The universe (GOD), owes you a big jackpot win.
Seriously?.
That area seems to be a hotbed for lottery winners in Kentucky. Of course when we go there to play we don't win, though that is very infrequent.