The Kentucky Lottery launched in 1989, with their first scratch-offs, 'Beginner's Luck' and 'Kentucky Derby Dreamstakes' retailing for $1 and $2 respectively. Nowadays, the KY Lottery offers players around 40 different scratch games at a time, with prizes ranging into the millions of dollars.
Lottery proceeds go towards the Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship (KEES), with over $5.4 billion raised since 1999. And it all started with a couple of $1 & $2 scratchers!
Most scratch-off top-prize winners don't go public, but the KY Lottery often shares the stories of those who do – here are some of the latest big wins we can get details for.
| Winner | Scratch-Off Game | Prize Amount |
|---|---|---|
| R.L. Doss Jr. (Danville) | ($5) Strike It Rich! | $75,000 |
| Melanie Fisher (Richmond) | ($2) Kentucky Humane Society | $30,000 |
| Cody Baggett (Owensboro) | ($3) Electric Diamonds | $50,000 |
| Frank Arrazola (Lexington) | ($5) $100,000 Jackpot | $100,000 |
There's no definitive list of the biggest Kentucky Lottery scratch-off winners – it depends which ones waive their anonymity, or provide the press/KY Lottery with comments they can use for a story. Here's a selection of stories from Kentucky players who struck gold on their scratch tickets:
Feb. 2025 - While we prefer writing up stories where we know the winner's name, we can't pass up a $3,000,000 grand prize, with comments provided by the winner! The anonymous winner regularly purchased KY Lottery scratch-offs, usually at the $20-$30 price point. They took the cash option of $2,040,000 as opposed to receiving the $3 million prize in full as an annuity. After taxes, they were left with $1,468,800, with which the winner planned to pay off some family debts.
R.L. Doss Jr., a mechanic by trade, had stopped by a Marathon with his wife, who surprised him with a handful of $5 Strike It Rich tickets, which had just been released at the time – "If you win, you win. If you don’t, you don’t", she'd said. The couple had grown up in "modest households" and had needed to work hard to provide for their family. They planned to use their winnings to fund a vacation to the beach, seeing as Doss Jr. had only been once, and his wife and kids had never seen the ocean before.
Some lottery winners are luckier than others; while some people play for years before their big win comes around, others, like Frank Arrazola, only need to play once. He got $5 change while paying for gas with a friend at Anniston Mini Mart, and the cashier suggested he spend it on a lottery scratch-off. Arrazola had never played before, but decided to give it a go, saying "Give me the winner" and letting the cashier pick the game. Arrazola, originally from Honduras, planned to "invest in education" and help out his family.