The San Francisco Bay Area man purchased the ticket in a local liquor store only to find out that the ticket was worth $20 million. This happened during his launch break as a skycap at the local airport and playing the $30 “Set For Life” game.
$20M to Realize a Lifelong Dream
Commenting on his win, Hickman said that the adrenaline was amazing, and described it as the biggest rush of his life. The California State Lottery congratulated the lucky soul and officials expressed their hopes that the win would completely transform Hickman’s life.
One of the first things Hickman said he would do was to purchase a home for his wife and added that this was his biggest and lifelong dream. He has been a regular at Set For Life but always played it as a bit of habit, rather than truly hoping to win big, although he already won $1,000 from it previously.
The winning comes at the right juncture for the man who is going to finally realize this distant dream now turned into a tangible reality. L&M Liquor in Hayward, the store that sold the winning ticket, will also get a $100,000 bonus, as is customary in such cases.
Meanwhile, this is not the only big scratch winnings to have been won recently. Millions have been won playing all sorts of other scratch card games over the past days, including a $5 million jackpot won by one Teresa Martinez who scooped a 100x scratch ticket at a Morgan Hill gas station.
Jackpots Everywhere around California
Her winnings were announced at the same time as Hickman, with apparently a number of lucky souls winning at the same time. Another person, German Medina Zapata, won $5 million on a Premier 7’s scratch ticket, California lottery officials confirmed. The ticket was born at K&H Liquors in San Francisco.
Last but not least, the statement also announced a $1 million win by one The-Ah Lin who had purchased a Cloud 9 Scratchers in a Seafood City in Hayward and won. To round it all up, a pair of people, Eric Holtzman and Matoux De La Croix, won a $5 million jackpot playing Premier 7’s scratcher. The ticket was bought at a liquor store in San Francisco.
Earlier this month, a woman won $3 million in Colorado by purchasing a digital lottery copy of a ticket, the biggest in the history of the service that provided the ticket.