I won the $1 million lottery jackpot and didn’t even buy a ticket – but it’s all due to my mom’s Valentine’s Day gift

A SWEET Valentine's Day gift resulted in a $1 million win for a lucky player.

On Tuesday, in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts, about 35 miles northwest of Boston, Matthew Broadley was given a card from his mother to celebrate the holiday of love.

Broadley opened the envelope to find two instant scratch-off tickets and proceeded to play them at around 11:00 pm, according to the Massachusetts State Lottery.

The first ticket resulted in a loss, but the second one managed to grab the winning jackpot of $1 million.

The following day — Valentine's Day itself — Broadley headed to lottery headquarters in Dorchester, about an hour away, to claim the massive prize pot.

Lottery officials said he arrived with the ticket inside the very card his mother had given him, per Boston.com.

“Thanks, mom,” he said while accepting the win.

His mom had purchased the ticket at the Lakeview General Store in Tyngsborough.

The store will get a $10,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.

As for Broadley, he chose the lump sum option of $650,000, considering tax deductions.

Several recent winners who have decided on the lump sum distribution have seen their prize pots diminished from mandatory taxes on the money.

LESS THAN EXPECTED

Florida resident Sean Wickson also had $200,000 deducted for taxes from their $1 million win.

Wickson played and won the 500X THE CASH scratch-off game.

It is hailed by Florida Lottery officials as their "largest ever" scratch-off opportunity.

Wickson headed to state lottery headquarters in Tallahassee due to the pot being $1 million or more after he bought the ticket at a Sunoco gas station in Grove City, located on Florida's southwestern coast near Fort Myers.

He forfeited nearly $200,000 in federal taxes, as the state doesn't tax lottery winnings.

Even so, Wickson still took home $820,000 after buying the ticket for just $50.

Another lottery-friend group run by Florida resident Elizabeth Williams also saw their winnings severely diminished by taxes on the winnings and having to split the money five ways.

A TEAM EFFORT

They each pooled in for $50 to buy the Sunshine State's newest scratch-off game called $1,000,000 A Year For Life Spectacular.

The top two prizes are $1 million a year for life, but there are also several other winning amounts possible.

Of those is a one-time $1 million disbursement, which Williams and her friends managed to collect.

After collecting the pot, the one-time payment was around $640,000 after tax withholdings.

That's a $360,000 deduction.

The full prize amount would've been paid out in annuity payments over several years.

After splitting everything among the friends, each received about $128,000.

For more related content, check out The U.S. Sun's coverage of a 21-year-old who won a $500,000 prize pot the first time he ever played the lottery in a game earlier this month.

The U.S. Sun also has the story on a man who said he got "kind of nervous" after landing a $252,000 win that broke records.