Lottery winner reverses luck with $250,000 winnings – days after losing his job for two decades
- Eric Abbott, from Lonoke, won $250,000 just days after being fired from his job
- His non-winning ticket was re-selected in the Play It Again draw
- At first, Abbott assumed it must be a scam, but he confirmed his win with the lottery
An Arkansas man saw his luck change dramatically when he found out he had won $250,000 in the lottery – just days after being forced to quit his job of more than 20 years.
Eric Abbott, of Lonoke, less than 30 miles from Little Rock, previously purchased a non-winning lottery ticket in the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery (ASL) Play It Again drawing.
However, his $5 ticket was randomly re-selected in a second chance draw – and he found out he was a winner on August 18th.
Just a few days earlier, on August 15, he should have quit his two-decade job. “I woke up around 5 a.m. and decided to check my emails,” Abbott said.
“I was shocked when I came across a lottery email saying I had won in one of those rematch draws! I immediately thought it was a scam so I checked the Club’s website to see if my name was listed and called the lottery to confirm my winnings,” he added.
Eric Abbott won $250,000 in the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery’s (ASL) Play It Again drawing
Arkansas Scholarship Lottery’s The Club is the exclusive venue for entering non-winning instant scratch cards for Play it Again cash draws and other rematches.
Once a player has joined The Club, any non-winning ticket will automatically be included in a future draw.
The club is free to join and has over 321,000 registered members.
The first thing Abbott did after winning was tell his parents, and he said he intended to use his newfound wealth to buy a new car and help his family and friends.
“This is truly a blessing and I am grateful for the opportunity to relieve their financial stress,” he said.
Arkansas Scholarship Lottery’s The Club automatically re-enters non-winning instant scratch cards for Play it Again cash draws
Arkansas Scholarship Lottery said the next Play It Again raffle will be on October 26 – with a prize of $500,000.
More than 92 cents of every dollar of lottery revenue goes toward prizes, grants, store commissions, and other expenses in Arkansas.
Since 2009, the lottery has given away more than $4.6 billion in prizes to players, raised more than $1.3 billion in scholarships, and awarded more than 720,000 scholarships to Arkansans.