09-05-2025
Tourist who traveled to Florida wins $1M lottery prize with ticket bought at Walmart
A Texas tourist who traveled to Florida this year ended up walking away from the Sunshine State with substantially more money in his bank account.
The Florida Lottery announced that David Le, a Lone Star state native, recently won a $1 million prize.
Le, who lives in Katy, Texas, was in Cape Coral when he purchased the winning ticket at a Walmart Supercenter, according to the May 2 statement.
Cape Coral is a much-visited tourist destination with hundreds of miles of canals for boaters. It also offers proximity to the Gulf of America.
Le's prize amounted to $1 million as part of the $1,000,00 A Year For Life Spectacular Scratch-Off Game.
The two top prizes for the game are $1 million a year for life — but Le won a one-time $1 million prize.
The game offers 234 prizes of $1 million.
The chances of winning any prize are 1-in-4.50.
The tourist's winnings were slightly diminished when he opted to accept the prize as a lump-sum payment.
"He chose to receive his winnings as a one-time, lump-sum payment of $640,000.00," the Florida Lottery noted in its press release.
"The retailer received a $2,000 bonus commission for selling the winning Scratch-Off ticket."
The Florida Lottery describes its scratch-off games as being "an important part of the Lottery's portfolio of games, comprising approximately 74% of ticket sales in fiscal year 2023-2024."
The lottery noted that "since inception, Scratch-Off games have awarded more than $65.5 billion in prizes, created 2,283 millionaires, and generated more than $19.80 billion for the state's Educational Enhancement Trust Fund (EETF)."
The announcement came weeks after a homeless man in California won $1 million through a lottery ticket purchased at a liquor store.
"I was so excited, even more than him," the liquor store's owner told the Los Angeles Times in April.
"He's a good person. He deserves every penny. I was very excited it happened to a person who deserved it, and he actually needed it."
