PALM HARBOR, Fla. — At Publix, they say "shopping is a pleasure."
But shopping at one Publix in Palm Harbor turned out to be much, much more for two Floridians who pressed their luck with the Florida Lottery.
On Monday, the Florida Lottery announced that a New Port Richey man was more than $10 million richer after winning a $15 million top prize scratch-off.
Ryan Doddridge, 42, claimed the $15 million prize from the Florida "300X The Cash" scratch-off game at the Florida Lottery headquarters in Tallahassee. Doddridge is reportedly the trustee of the Doddridge Law Winners Revocable Trust.
The trust chose to receive the winnings as a one-time, lump sum of $10,430,000.
The very next day, the Florida Lottery announced yet another local winner.
This time, it was 41-year-old Octavia Wright's turn to celebrate. She won $1 million from the "500X The Cash" scratch-off game and chose to receive her winnings as a one-time, lump-sum payment of $820,000.
While Doddridge and Wright both can say they're lottery winners, that's not the only thing they have in common. They both bought their winning scratch-offs from the same Publix on U.S. 19 in Palm Harbor.
In both cases, the Publix earned a prize for selling those winning tickets.
For the $15 million winner, the grocery store will get a $30,000 bonus commission. For the $1 million winner, it will receive a $2,000 bonus commission.
According to the Florida Lottery, scratch-off games comprised of about 77% of ticket sales between 2021 and 2022.
