4 Southern Californians strike gold with lottery Scratchers

Four lucky Southern California residents recently scratched their way to small fortunes with California Lottery Scratcher games, lottery officials announced.

The biggest winner was Jose Garfias, who won $7 million from an Xtreme Crosswords Scratcher ticket sold at Sweet Time Donuts in Compton.

Douglas Colton won $5 million on a Year of Fortune Scratcher, which he bought at the Circle K on Brookside Avenue in Redlands.

Kuwa Harin won a $5 million prize on a California State Riches ticket purchased at Chevron on El Cajon Boulevard in San Diego.

Finally, Ali Awad recently won $1 million on a Merry Multiplier Scratchers ticket purchased at a 7-Eleven on San Diego Mission Road.

The California Lottery projects total sales revenue of more than $9 billion in the 2024-2025 fiscal year, $2.08 billion of which will go to public education. Those projections are slightly below the last fiscal year which featured 13 Powerball and Mega Millions drawings of $1 billion or more.

“Having this many jackpots at extraordinarily high levels is statistically improbable and triggered exponential sales growth; the California Lottery cannot assume the same luck in the next 12 months,” California Lottery officials said.

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