Grandpa skipped nap and scratched lottery ticket instead. He won huge in California

A grandpa who’s been playing the lottery for the last 40 years just landed a massive prize in California, lottery officials said.

Jess Daniels had a long day of running errands but decided to take a break and buy a couple tickets of the $100 Million Mega Cash scratchers game in San Jose, according to a March 7 news release by the California Lottery.

He had no idea his quick decision would land him a $1 million prize, officials said.

After finishing his grocery shopping, Daniels went home and decided to check his tickets instead of taking his planned nap, officials said.

He grabbed a piece of chicken and sat with his granddaughter as he scratched the tickets, officials said.

“I got to the first ticket (the sister to the winning ticket) and saw number 43; it was twenty bucks. OK, cool,” he told officials.

Then he moved to the next game and started using his “unique scratching method,” officials said.

“I scratch all the winning numbers first, then all the player’s numbers. Then I start checking them,” Daniels told officials. “So I went down the rows, first row—43? Nope. 27? Nope. 16? Nope.”

Then came the next row.

“OH! I’ve got number 19! So, I started to scratch it,” he told officials.

After having won $1,000 before, he thought he’d won that again but when he finished scratching he learned of his $1 million prize, officials said.

“Oh my God, Grandpa! Oh my God!” his granddaughter said as she watched him uncover the win.

But Daniels credits the number 19 to his landing the top prize in the game, beating odds of 1-in-2,049,669.

“So, check this out,” he said, “It was December 19th, the winning number was number 19, and the matching number was also 19. When I filled out the paperwork, it required a 19-digit number, and on the 19th of February, I received my check. So, number 19 is now my lucky number.”

San Jose is about a 50-mile drive southeast of San Francisco.

This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 4:14 PM with the headline "Grandpa skipped nap and scratched lottery ticket instead. He won huge in California."