Bradenton man wins more than $4 million after buying a $10 scratch-off lottery ticket

A 53-year-old Bradenton man was a long way from home when he stopped into a Hawthorne Stop N Go in North Florida, but his decision to do so and grab a $10 scratch-off lottery ticket won him $5,000 a week for the rest of his life.

The Florida Lottery announced Wednesday that Timothy Parker of Bradenton claimed his prize at the Florida Lottery headquarters in Tallahassee.

The $5,000 a week for life scratch-off game kicked off in September 2017. Besides the top prize, the $10 scratch-off game features more than $147 million in overall prizes with a 3 in 35 chance of having a winning ticket.

Lottery officials say Parker opted to take his prize in one lump sum payment of more than $4 million.

Scratch-off tickets generated more than $871 million last year for the state’s Educational Enhancement Trust Fund and makes up about 69 percent of the lottery’s overall revenue.

Since the Florida Lottery began, more than $3.5 billion has been contributed toward education, sending more than 808,000 students to college through the Bright Futures Scholarship Program.