A lottery scratcher sold in the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles is one of several multimillion dollar scratchers sold in California in recent weeks.
The scratcher, an “Instant Prize Crossword” game, was sold at Dragon Gate Inn at 818 N Hill St.
The lucky winner was identified by California Lottery officials as Jay Inkhothavong.
Inkhothavong won $2 million on the scratcher, the California Lottery said.
News of Inkhothavong’s win came as lottery fever sweeps across much of the nation as the Mega Millions Lottery exceeds $1.2 billion, and shortly after a $1.08 billion Powerball ticket was sold in Los Angeles.
It’s unclear when the winning ticket was purchased, as it can often take several weeks for the California Lottery to verify a win and winners don’t always come forward as soon as they realize they’ve struck gold.
We reached out to the California Lottery after business hours with hopes of getting that information soon.
In addition to Inkhothavong’s win, several other tickets recently sold in California are multimillion dollar winners.
A man in Sacramento bought a $30 scratcher in search of the $10 million prize. He ended up getting a winning ticket worth $500 and then took those winnings to buy even more scratchers.
“I decided to just go all in and buy an entire book of the ten-dollar games,” said Vang Cha, the lucky winner. “I went to work and scratched probably about 20 of them, went home and scratched the rest.”
He ended up winning $1 million on the final row of the final ticket he purchased. Not bad for a $30 investment.