Scratch-off ticket roll saves the best for last

By Kate Northrop

MALVERN, Ohio — An Ohio man took a chance on the last and final scratch-off ticket of its kind in the display bin, and it turned out to be a winner for a handsome $500,000 prize.

A roll of lottery tickets saved the best for last, rewarding an Ohio man with a $500,000 top prize when he decided to take the one remaining ticket of an instant game in the display cabinet.

An anonymous Ohio resident had just recently finished accompanying his wife for a round of appointments for her cancer treatments, the Ohio Lottery said in a press release, and stopping on the way home brought about a delightful way to end the day on a good note.

The couple visited BellStores on Canton Road Northwest in Malvern. There, the husband decided to pick out a couple of $5 scratch-off tickets. That's also when he noticed one lone $10 "Best of 7's" ticket in the display case, the last of its kind at the store. It was a ticket he simply couldn't pass up.

"I like the end of the roll, I'll buy in the middle too, but always liked the end of the roll best," he told the Lottery.

His preferences for the end of the roll were rewarded when he scratched the ticket off at home and uncovered the game's $500,000 top prize.

"I still can't believe it," he said, recalling the moment he won. "I still think it's a dream!"

He immediately went to tell his wife about the lucky ticket in his hands, who didn't believe a word coming out of his mouth until he scanned the ticket on the Lottery's mobile app to prove it to her.

"She looked at me funny and said, 'Did you fall?'" the man recounted to Lottery officials. "I said, 'No, I'm in shock! I think I won half a million dollars!'"

After federal and state taxes, he took home a clean $360,000. It's a "blessing in disguise," the winner said, since the winnings will help pay for their family's mounting medical bills from his wife's cancer treatments. When his wife is feeling better, he added, he hopes to do something fun for the two of them.

There are two out of four top prizes remaining in the $10 "Best of 7's" scratch-off game, which launched in September 2024. There are also two out of four second-tier prizes of $100,000 and five out of ten third-tier prizes of $50,000 left to claim.

The overall odds of winning any prize in the game are 1 in 3.73.