ATLANTA – One lucky Claxton man has rounded up a towering top prize from the Georgia Lottery. Leartis Simon Jr., 32, played the instant game Maximum Fortune and won a $1 million top prize.
Simon purchased his ticket April 1 and claimed his prize April 3 at Georgia Lottery headquarters in Atlanta.
S & E Food Mart, 8 N. Duval St. in Claxton, sold the winning ticket.
“I thought it was an April Fools’ joke,” Simon recalled upon scratching his ticket. “I showed the clerk, and she fell on the floor hollering and screaming.”
With his winnings, Simon anticipates establishing business ventures in logistics and real estate.
“It’s not every day you come across this kind of money,” he shared.
Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corp. has returned more than $15 billion to the state of Georgia for education. All Georgia Lottery profits go to pay for specific educational programs, including Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship Program and Georgia’s Pre-K Program. More than 1.6 million students have received HOPE, and more than 1.3 million 4-year-olds have attended the statewide, voluntary prekindergarten program.
For more information on the Georgia Lottery Corp., please visit:
www.galottery.com and www.lotterybenefitsgeorgians.com
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