Homeless couple wins $1m in California, need to wait for money

• An unhoused man in San Luis Obispo, California, won $1,000,000 from a scratch-off game
• The winning ticket was sold at Sandy’s Deli-Liquor Store and will allow the man to turn his life around
• The odds of winning the Red 777 Scratcher game are 1 in 2,047,423

A man and his wife may soon get off the streets in California and stop sleeping rough, after the husband won a seven-figure lottery prize. The California Lottery has issued a comment cautioning that the tale that is too good to be true is still a work in progress.

A homeless man wins $1m, his ticket off the streets

The winner, who was not named by name, but who bought his ticket at Sandy’s Deli-Liquor Store in San Luis Obispo, California, will need to wait up to a couple of months before he can claim his $1,000,000 prize won from the Red 777 Scratcher game.

The odds of winning the $1m-prize for the game are set at 1 in 2,047,423, and the fact that the reward went to a person who was in dire need of the money is doubly extraordinary.

This is a standard practice, California Lottery spokesperson Caroline Becker said, as the lottery has to verify up to 10,000 claims every month, which could take a little time.

"As you can imagine, we give away a lot of prize money at the California lottery, and we are happy to do it, but we want to make sure we are giving it to the right person."

For the homeless man and his wife, however, the news is the difference between spending another month on the streets, and returning back to normal life, with the prize pool allowing them to find housing, and possibly return to steady employment.

The story of the man is as newsworthy as it is emotional. The manager of the store where the ticket had been bought was happy to speak to Cal Coastal News, one of the outlets that reported on the story.

Wilson Samaan, the manager, described the winner as a "nice guy" who "deserved every penny of it," but refrained from offering further details about his identity. He recounted how the winner had found he had won.

Lottery would need up to a few months to distribute the prize

The person had come to the store to buy a ticket and scratched it off right away. He was dumbfounded to discover that he had won, only what he thought he had won wasn’t the real prize. Originally, the winner went over to Samaan and asked if he was reading that right – had he really won $100,000?

The manager quickly went: "No, bro. That’s $1 million – congratulations, brother," Samaan’s swift response came. The winner said, "I am not homeless anymore," and the pair did a high five.

Despite the fact that the man and his wife would still have to wait a while before they could claim the prize, he is already planning for the future. The winner intends to put down payment for a home in the area and also get a car.

Footage of the winner is actually available, as he spoke to another local business owner who recorded the man with his consent on his phone and shared it on Instagram.

In the video, a tall man in a blue sweatshirt with a heavy beard holds a printout of the winning ticket and shares his plans to move off the streets.

Image credit: WCNC