Broward winner claims $1M prize as someone is to lose out on $193K

Some ecstasy and agony in Florida Lottery news as one player claims her prize in a million dollar win from a scratch-off game and another player risks losing nearly $193,000 from a Fantasy 5 ticket that will expire soon.

On the good news front, a Coconut Creek woman, Elizabeth Desimone, 36, traveled to the Florida Lottery headquarters in Tallahassee to claim the top prize in the $1,000,000 Luck $5 scratch-off game.

According to lottery officials, Desimone elected to receive her winnings as a one-time, lump-sum payment of $700,000.

Desimone bought her winning scratch-off ticket at the Publix supermarket at 411 South Cypress Road in Pompano Beach. The store will receive a bonus commission of $2,000 for selling the winning ticket.

Meanwhile, a jackpotwinning Fantasy 5 ticket purchased in Fort Lauderdale for the Dec. 27 drawing will soon expire — meaning whoever bought it will forfeit $192,899.05.

The ticket’s 180 day expiration date will be reached at midnight June 25.

The winning ticket was bought at Super Stop 441 at 2099 S. State Road 7.

The Fantasy 5 numbers for the Dec. 27 drawing were 1, 4, 11, 27 and 33.

Money from expired lottery tickets goes back to the state. Florida law requires 80 percent of the winnings to go toward the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund while 20 percent goes back into a pool for prize money.

In 2003, someone let a $50 million Florida Lottery ticket expire. And in 2015, a $15 million ticket sold at a Lake Worth liquor store also went unclaimed.