A nursing assistant who works at the Florida Department of Health reportedly won the $5-million jackpot from a lucky scratch-off game.
The winner, identified as Reshena Clark, 29, who has worked as a certified nursing assistant since 2013, reportedly bought her winning "$5,000,000 LUCK" scratch-off ticket at a Circle K at 1515 North Main Street in Gainesville.
Upon clinching the top prize, she has opted for a one-time, lump-sum payment of $3,815,000 and claimed the jackpot money on Wednesday, Dec. 1, Miami Herald reported.
Clark had previously earned a lottery-funded Bright Futures Scholarship that helped her finish her nursing degree. She reportedly studied nursing at the University of Central Florida in Orlando and health sciences at Florida International University in Miami, respectively, between 2011 and 2019.
When asked what she plans to do with the lottery money, Clark said that she wants to continue pursuing a career in nursing.
"I feel like I've won the Florida Lottery twice now," she said. "The Lottery-funded Bright Futures Scholarship is the reason I was able to attend college in the first place. Now that I've won as a player, I feel like everything has come full circle."
The "$5,000,000 LUCK" game, which sells tickets at $20 apiece, has been around since September 2019. The game has reportedly delivered more than $329 million in cash prizes to all its winners, including six top prizes of $5 million, according to The Florida Lottery.
The retailer that sold the winning ticket will reportedly also receive a $10,000 bonus commission for selling the lucky scratch-off stub.
In a similar but unrelated incident, a North Carolina nurse who worked in the COVID-19 unit at a long-term care facility reportedly won $1 million in a second-chance drawing in January earlier this year.
The winner, identified as Terri Watkins, received a phone call from lottery officials saying that she'd won the jackpot. However, Watkins initially thought that she was being scammed, USA Today reported.
"You're telling a story," Watkins told the Lottery representative who told her she won. "I don't believe you."
“I thought that it was not real, couldn’t be real. It’s still something that I really don’t believe, I’m still in some shock here,” she said.
Watkins opted for the one-time payment of her lottery prize and took home $424,500 after taxes.
Watkins said that she is planning to take her time to figure out what she wants to do with her winnings.
“I would love a new home, but I’ve just got to take time and put it in the right place,” she said.
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