{"id":526315,"date":"2026-03-08T07:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T07:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/526315\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T07:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T07:47:09","slug":"lottery-winner-who-was-homeless-scoops-1-4m-prize-pool-after-a-tough-day-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/526315\/","title":{"rendered":"Lottery winner who was homeless scoops $1.4m prize pool after a \u2018tough\u2019 day at work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">A man who admitted to being homeless at one point has won a staggering lottery prize after a bad day at work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The Colorado State Lottery pool had hit $US1 million ($1.4 million) when the man known only as Johnathan G decided to try his luck with a scratchie ticket.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Mr G. who chose not to provide his full name, spent $US20 to purchase the ticket at a Walmart store in Alamosa, according to reports from the lottery office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-3mk41m-StyledText eze0guv9\">Sign up to The Nightly&#8217;s newsletters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1r9pdr5-StyledSubText eze0guv8\">Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>By continuing you agree to our <a href=\"https:\/\/thenightly.com.au\/subscription-terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Terms<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sevenwestmedia.com.au\/privacy-policies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">After what he described as \u201ca rough day at work\u201d the mobile phone sales representative though he would try and turn his luck around.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI was having a tough sales day and it actually paid off,\u201d Johnathan said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cMy reaction was total disbelief.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Jonathan added he usually only spends $US5 on lottery tickets occasionally, but for some reason he was drawn to splash out and buy the $US20 version <a class=\"css-hwy1qg-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/colorado-man-bought-lottery-ticket-won-usd1-million-amid-tough-day-at-work-11920341\">People<\/a> are reporting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cSomething in my head said, \u2018Hey, why not try for that $20 one? What\u2019s the worst that could happen?\u2019 \u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cIt was one of the best decisions I ever made.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">After mentioning he had previously spent time without a fixed address, the instant millionaire said the win will be life-changing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI definitely plan on giving my girlfriend and kids a life that I never thought was possible,\u201d Johnathan said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cA little hope and perseverance and a gift of luck are going to give us a life we have been working very hard to have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Jonathan won playing the 200X Scratch game with lottery officials confirming players have about a one in three chance of winning some money on a ticket purchased.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The majority of players win back their initial $20 with punters standing a one in 1,080,000 chance of winning the $1 million jackpot according to the Colorado Lottery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who admitted to being homeless at one point has won a staggering lottery prize after a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,1625,44,41,39,42,40,2957,1720],"class_list":["post-526315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-lifestyle","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-usa","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}