A Lucky Person in This Texas Town Has an $8 Million Lotto Winner

There are two primary schools of thought when it comes to trying your luck at winning a high-dollar lottery jackpot.

1. The chance of winning is microscopic (1 in nearly 26,000,000), so why even bother trying
2. No matter the odds, sooner or later someone is going to win.

Someone bucked those odds for the June 17 Lotto Texas drawing and purchased a jackpot-winning ticket worth an estimated annuitized $8. The ticket was purchased at Tiger Mart 51, located at 102 E. Interstate 20, in Weatherford, Texas.

Weatherford is located just west of Fort Worth.

The winning Quick Pick ticket matched all six of the numbers drawn (2-5-13-16-23-38). The cash value option was selected at the time of purchase and the claimant will receive $4,784,297.17 before taxes.

I don't know what the taxes will be, but I would imagine the winner is looking at a total payout somewhere near $2 million. That's a far cry from the original $8 million, but you could still afford to buy $500 worth of groceries every day for 10 years.

The prize has not yet been claimed. The winner has 180 days from the draw date to claim the prize.

“We look forward to meeting and congratulating the winner of this Lotto Texas jackpot prize,” said Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery. “If you have the winning ticket, we encourage you to sign the ticket, put it in a safe place, seek financial and legal advice, and call the Texas Lottery to schedule an appointment to claim the prize.”

The jackpot for the next Lotto Texas drawing on Wednesday, June 21 stands at an estimated annuitized $5.25 million. Other drawings include the Mega Millions lottery for $300 million (next drawing is June 20) and the Powerball for $400 million (next drawing is June 21)