RECENT COLLEGE GRAD CLAIMS $850,000
MEGA MONEY™ JACKPOT

TALLAHASSEE -- The Florida Lottery today announced that Marcus Walker, 25, of Riviera Beach, claimed the October 2, $850,000 MEGA MONEY™ jackpot.

Walker chose the one-time, lump-sum payment option for his winnings in the amount of $614,042.55. The winning MEGA MONEY ticket was purchased at Publix, located at 4771 Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach. The retailer received a bonus incentive of $3,000 for selling the jackpot-winning ticket.

The winning numbers were:

23 - 30 - 40 - 42 and the MEGABALL® was 05

Walker said he checked his ticket multiple times before believing he was the winner. "I compared my numbers on the ticket to the numbers on the computer over and over. It still has not sunk in yet that I won," he said. Walker, who recently graduated from college, said he plans to use his new winnings to pay off student loans and travel.

The Florida Lottery's MEGA MONEY game includes the following features:

• Top prizes starting at $500,000 increasing to $2 million.
• A free ticket for matching just the MEGABALL.
• Advance Play for up to 30 drawings.

Total ticket sales for this jackpot generated more than $963,000 for the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund (EETF). Since 1988, the Florida Lottery has contributed more than $20 billion to the EETF, benefiting our students and schools, as well as funding more than one million Bright Futures scholarships. By a two-to-one margin, Florida voters in 1986 approved a constitutional amendment authorizing the state to operate a lottery for the purpose of generating significant additional moneys for education.

The next MEGA MONEY drawing will be held Tuesday, October 6, at 11:15 p.m. ET with a $500,000 jackpot. Webcasts of Florida Lottery drawings are available on the Lottery's Web site at flalottery.com.

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