Fandom pays off for player in pick between USC & Clemson lottery games. What did she pick?

An Upstate woman wanted to buy both a Carolina Jackpot and a Clemson Jackpot scratch-off game when she was at a Walmart store, but only had enough money to get one ticket, according to South Carolina Education Lottery officials.

Forced to make a choice, the woman said the decision was easy because of her rooting interests.

“I’m a Carolina fan for life ,” she said in a news release.

Her devotion to the University of South Carolina was strengthened as her pick paid off in a $200,000 jackpot, officials said.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “It means even more to be a Carolina fan now.”

The six-figure winning ticket was sold at the Walmart Neighborhood Market on Highway 14 in Simpsonville, according to the release. That’s about 40 miles from Clemson University, and 90 miles from USC’s campus in Columbia.

The winner said she wanted purchase tickets for both prominent South Carolina universities, but was forced to pick between them when she only got back enough change to buy one of the $5 games, officials said.

The woman said she’s going to spend her newfound windfall to pay off her house and then help others, according to the release.

The winner will be allowed to retain some privacy, as South Carolina is one of 11 states — along with Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Texas and Virginia — that allow lottery winners to remain anonymous .

The odds of winning the top prize in the Carolina Jackpot game were 1-in-520,000, according to the release. This was the first of the game’s three top prize-winning tickets to be claimed, officials said.

The Walmart store received a commission of $2,000 for selling the claimed ticket, according to the release.