David Partain scratched off the ticket on the hood of his long haul truck, and he went numb when he saw what it revealed. The ticket he scratched was the third ticket in a string of wins for Mr. Partain playing Mega Millionaire Jumbo Bucks, a game with overall odds of 1:2.91.
He had already won $25 on the game earlier and used that $25 for another ticket, winning a free ticket.
The free ticket he scratched in the parking lot of the Eagle Travel Center in Soddy Daisy Sunday turned him into a multi-millionaire instantly, as the numbers revealed the $2 million top prize.
“I saw it, but I didn’t believe it. I went numb,” Mr. Partain, a 30-year and third-generation truck driver out of Chattanooga, said. He called his wife. “I called her and said, ‘I hit it.’ She thought I’d wrecked the truck.”
Mr. Partain’s ticket is the 309th ticket sold worth $1 million or more since the Lottery began on Jan. 20, 2004. His plans for the winnings include buying his wife a house, paying off the loan on his truck, and possibly a car for his 16-year-old daughter.
“It’s just something I enjoy doing,” he said of the Lottery’s instant games. “I just play to have fun.”