'I Actually Started Crying': He Was in Debt His Entire Life Before Scratch Off Lottery Win Charles Stallard purchased a lucky ticket in Louisville, Kentucky, and has now paid off his mortgage.
By Emily Rella
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
People who have found themselves in debt usually fantasize about a day when it will all be wiped away.
And for one lucky man in Kentucky, that dream became a reality after he won a scratch-off lottery ticket in Louisville.
Charles Stallard purchased a $5 scratch-off ticket in February at Price Less Foods in Louisville, which advertised $150,000 as the winning prize for the ticket.
Stallard first scratched off a 50x multiplier and then to his shock, a $3,000 monetary amount.
"I actually started crying. I couldn't believe it," he told the Kentucky Lottery. "For the first time in my life, I'm not in debt. I get to pay my house off."
Stallard collected his prize and took home $108,000, which he said he also plans to use to fix his boat that's been broken down for over a year.
"Once I get everything paid, I'm fishing the rest of the year," he said.
The Price Less Foods where he purchased the ticket won a $1,500 payout for selling the ticket.
Stallard's winnings follow another big win in Kentucky in December when a group of 14 employees won $50,000 on scratch-off tickets that their boss had gifted them at an office holiday party.
"I'm going to use it for my mom's medicine," one employee named Winnie Beckman said at the time, explaining that her mother had recently been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. "This will help a lot. And I will never forget this."
The Kentucky Lottery has raised an estimated $6.8 billion for causes in the state since 1989 and $4.8 billion of those proceeds have gone towards education and scholarship programs, per the lottery website.
