Lottery player checks ticket after brother-in-law saw someone won jackpot. It was him

Before a recent lottery drawing, an Arkansas man said he went to the store with his brother-in-law to buy a ticket.

“Our family plays the lottery quite often,” the man from Little Rock told lottery officials. This time, he was playing Arkansas’ newest lottery game — LOTTO.

Sometime after the 9 p.m. drawing on Sept. 13, the man’s brother-in-law checked the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery website and saw someone had won the jackpot, according to a Sept. 15 news release.

That’s when he realized he had won the $999,000 prize.

“What shocked me even more was that the winning numbers were just random numbers that I selected,” the winner told lottery officials when claiming his winnings. The winning numbers were 1, 5, 17, 18, 23 and 39.

He’s not sure how he’ll use his newfound cash quite yet, but he does plan to continue working — at least for now, according to the release.

“I’m still in disbelief and want some time to let this win sink in for a few days,” the winner said.

This story was originally published September 18, 2023 at 2:10 PM with the headline "Lottery player checks ticket after brother-in-law saw someone won jackpot. It was him."