South Carolina couple $200K richer after plucking ‘losing’ lottery ticket back out of trash

An anonymous couple from South Carolina is thanking their lucky stars after one of them realized their “losing” lottery ticket was actually a big winner.

The couple, described by the South Carolina Education Lottery in a July 25 news release as being from the “upstate” region of South Carolina, recently purchased a $5 Double Sided Dollars Extra Play lottery scratch-off ticket from a convenience store in Spartanburg. 

Spartanburg is a city in northern South Carolina, about 75 miles southwest of Charlotte, North Carolina. 

After scratching it, the wife did not think she’d won — so she threw the ticket away.

But her eagle-eyed husband noticed the ticket in the trash and saw something his wife had missed.

“You have a 12 on it,” the man recounted to the South Carolina Education Lottery, meaning that the ticket was not a loser after all.

He plucked the ticket from the trash and his wife kept scratching the card – discovering that she had won $200,000.

The couple told the South Carolina Education Lottery they’re “happy and thankful everything worked out.”

With their winnings, the two plan on buying a new house, they told lottery officials. 

The couple had a 1 in 750,000 chance of winning the $200,000 top prize in the Double Sided Dollars Extra Play, the South Carolina Education Lottery said.

The Double Sided Dollars Extra Play game went on sale on March 19, 2024, the South Carolina Education Lottery’s website said.

Three of the four top prizes of $200,000 have been claimed. 

A total of 32 second-place prizes of $1,000 are still available. 

Thousands of other prizes, ranging from $5 to $500, are also available. 

The South Carolina Education Lottery was created after a Nov. 7, 2000, referendum that saw residents of the state vote to approve the implementation of a state-run lottery, the lottery’s website said.

The South Carolina Education Lottery Act was ratified by the South Carolina General Assembly a little more than six months later, and the bill was signed into law. 

The first tickets for the South Carolina Education Lottery’s games were sold in March 2002, its website said. 

A quarter of the South Carolina Education Lottery’s proceeds go toward various educational programs in the state, according to the website. 

The rest go to prizes, retailer commissions and operating costs.

This amounts to more than $8 billion since 2002, according to the lottery. 

During the first 20 years of the lottery, more than 2.5 million scholarships have been distributed to South Carolina students, the website said.  

The South Carolina Education Lottery declined to provide additional details on the lucky couple’s big win.