Giorgi B. of Hamilton is a New Jersey Lottery player who has been playing $3 scratch-off Crossword tickets for the past three years.
While stopping at the gas station where he normally buys his lottery tickets, he noticed a handful of Crossword Scratch-Off tickets in the trash. Giorgi had already won two big Crossword games from this store, for $1,000 and $5,000, and gave it another try, on a hunch. Giorgi purchased the $10 game variant for the first time, $250,000 Crossword.
With his new $250,000 Crossword ticket in hand, Giorgi scratched the ticket right there in the store. Giorgi is familiar with the Crossword games, and it didn’t take him long after he finished scratching to realize his ticket was a big winner.
Giorgi’s Crossword game revealed 10 words, winning the top prize of $250,000!
When Giorgi called his wife to tell her the good news, she was delighted and cautioned him not to tell anyone of the win. However, in her excitement, despite the initial advice to her husband, she enthusiastically shared this news with the rest of the family.
Giorgi said this was the perfect time for him to win, and that the money would help pay off debts from nursing school. Giorgi said he does plan to continue playing Lottery games, but has set his sights on the draw games, hoping to win an even bigger jackpot.
The retailer that sold the winning ticket was Whitehorse Mercerville Exxon, 1824 Whitehorse Mercerville Rd., Hamilton in Mercer County.
New Jersey Lottery players claimed more than $98.7 million in prizes playing Scratch-Offs in September.