LOWER SAUCON, Pa. — On his drive to work, bartender at Wind Creek Casino Chris Pierce often stops at Uni-Mart to buy an iced coffee and a lottery ticket.
Pierce said when the prize for the Powerball or Mega Millions is high, he’ll stray from his routine to buy those, but he almost always gets Cash4Life, a draw game that costs him $2.
While he’s won prizes under $200 before, he said he never expected to win big. Buying the tickets was always “more of a habit.”
Today, Pierce was presented with a $1 million commemorative check for the winning Cash4Life ticket he bought for the Oct. 18 drawing. The check was given to Pierce by officials from Uni-Mart and the Pennsylvania Lottery, as well as the Secretary of Revenue for Pennsylvania, Pat Browne.
Cash4Life is a draw game in which players must have a ticket matching the five balls drawn in order to win. If they also match the green Cash Ball, they win the top prize, offering $1,000 a day for life.
Pierce won the second-place Cash4Life prize, meaning his ticket correctly matched the numbers drawn, 1-23-41-43-59, but did not match the green Cash Ball. He was able to choose between receiving $1,000 a week for life or $1 million cash for his prize.
Pierce chose the second option and now the ticket he spent $2 on will earn him an estimated $729,304.38 after federal and state taxes according to the Pennsylvania Lottery.
The Uni-Mart he purchased the ticket from, located at 3655 Route 378, Bethlehem, will also receive a $10,000 bonus.
When Pierce scanned his ticket as he normally does, he didn’t immediately realize he had won.
He said “It read something weird telling me to file a claim,” so he asked a familiar Uni-Mart employee, Brian Mokras, to check it for him.
“I had to read the slip like three different times to make sure it was the right amount,” Mokras said. “It was awesome, he didn’t even really know what he won.”Chris Pierce
“I had to read the slip like three different times to make sure it was the right amount,” Mokras said. “It was awesome, he didn’t even really know what he won.”
Before this, Mokras said the most he’d ever seen someone win at the Uni-Mart was around $1,000. Pierce said he had won prizes under $200 before, but was completely shocked by the amount his winning ticket brought in.
He didn’t immediately believe what he was hearing and thought there had been a mistake. The odds of winning the Cash4Life prize Pierce did were approximately 1 in 7.3 million.
Mokras said the number of tickets sold each day is too high for him to keep track of.
“I’m happy for him…” said Mokras. “He’s been an everyday customer for years.”
Pierce said he plans to be responsible with his winnings. He wants to save the money and earn interest on it so he can retire a few years earlier than he had expected to.
Still, Pierce said he plans to continue buying Cash4Life tickets on his way to work just like always.
