Ohio man forgot his winning $50 lotto ticket at home when he went to cash it. So he bought another and hit the jackpot

The Independent - UK ^ | October 31, 2025 | Erin Keller

[Red Badger]

The winner said his wife didn’t believe his win until their son confirmed it on the Ohio Lottery app

Sometimes it pays to be forgetful.

An Ohio man’s oversight turned into a life-changing moment when his forgetfulness scored him a $500,000 lottery prize.

The unidentified Roseville resident told the Ohio Lottery that he went to cash a $50 winning Best of 7’s scratch-off in Zanesville but discovered he’d left the ticket at home.

Trying his luck again, the man said he decided to buy another Best of 7’s scratch-off at South 60 Market in Zanesville, and nearly became sick in his car when he realized he’d won half a million.

He called his wife to tell her the good news, but said she didn’t believe him – until their son confirmed it on the Ohio Lottery app.

The winning number was 13, which is also his dirt car racing number.

As for his advice on how he got so lucky, the man told the lottery, “You can’t win if you don’t play.”

After taxes, the man will take home $364,375, which he plans to use to pay off his house, buy a new car, and spend more time with his family.

Best of 7’s offers 60 chances to win per ticket, with one top and two second-tier prizes still remaining as of October 28, the lottery said.

[Red Badger]

“The Lottery, with its weekly pay-out of enormous prizes, was the one public event to which the proles paid serious attention. It was probable that there were some millions of proles for whom the Lottery was the principal if not the only reason for remaining alive. It was their delight, their folly, their anodyne, their intellectual stimulant. Where the Lottery was concerned, even people who could barely read and write seemed capable of intricate calculations and staggering feats of memory. There was a whole tribe of men who made their living simply by selling systems, forecasts, and lucky amulets. Winston had nothing to do with the Lottery, which was managed by the Ministry of Plenty, but he was aware (indeed everyone in the party was aware) that the prizes were largely imaginary. Only small sums were actually paid out, the winners of the big prizes being nonexistent persons.”
― George Orwell, 1984

[Red Badger]

“So long as they (the Proles) continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern...Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.”
― George Orwell, 1984

[af_vet_1981]

Back in the late 80s I knew a man who won $4.5 million - lotta money 30 + years ago. He took $17k monthly for 20 years. He still managed to go broke long before the 20 years was used up. Last I saw him he was running a register in a convenience store.

Beyond getting and divorcing 3 wives, child support I don’t know what else he did. I do know that his father somewhere along the way had to take over his finances, etc.

It takes the grace of God to survive the temptations and trials in this world. The love of money, not the money itself, is the root of all evil. We are all on trial, being tested, and the one who is faithful with little, should be faithful with a lot.

James 1:16-18
Do not err, my beloved brethren.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.