Man wins huge lottery prize with last-minute ticket. ‘My dreams came true’
An Arkansas man made a last-minute decision to buy a lottery ticket during a store run and it paid off .
The Garland County man was at work in Fort Smith and decided to stop at a store to buy beef jerky and some lottery tickets, according to an Oct. 20 news release from the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery.
The man had his eyes on the $625 million Mega Millions jackpot, but then another game caught his attention.
He saw the jackpot for Lotto was over $1 million, so he asked the clerk a question.
“Is it too late to play?” he asked the cashier, according to lottery officials.
The cashier told him he still had time, and he bought one Lotto ticket for the Oct. 15 drawing.
The man woke up around 4:30 a.m. and checked the winning numbers and saw, “Winner — claim at lottery.”
When he checked his ticket, he realized he won $1.338 million.
“Heck yeah, my dreams came true!” the man said with excitement, according to lottery officials.
The winning numbers were 1, 5, 23, 30, 32 and 40 with a bonus number of 33.
The man said he plans to invest for retirement.
This story was originally published October 20, 2025 at 3:49 PM with the headline "Man wins huge lottery prize with last-minute ticket. ‘My dreams came true’."
