Alachua teen wins $500,000 lottery prize

A 19-year-old from Alachua struck gold with a $5 scratch-off Friday, winning a grand prize of $500,000.

Carlos Carranza Casas picked up his winning Gold Rush Doubler lottery ticket in the convenience store at the Deerhaven Marathon gas station, located at 9600 NW 13th St. in Gainesville, the Florida Lottery announced in a press release Monday.

Casas could not be immediately reached for comment.

Cherie Cevaer, the gas station’s manager, said she was doing paperwork in her office when a lottery representative came in to tell the store it sold the winning ticket.

A sign that reads, “Winning Ticket Sold Here” now hangs in the front window of the store.

“It’s absolutely mind-boggling considering how many retail stores sell these tickets, and yet we were the one that sold the top prize,” Cevaer said.

The lottery game debuted in January and offers more than $182.8 million in prizes, according to the release. There are 44 tickets that will win the top prize of $500,000.

Keri Nucatola, a Florida Lottery public affairs specialist, said Casas came in to claim the prize Friday at the Florida Lottery headquarters in Tallahassee. Any win of more than $250,000 has to be verified at the headquarters.

The overall odds of winning the grand prize is 1 in 1.2 million, according to the Florida Lottery’s website.

“Some weeks we get a bunch of winners and other weeks we don’t get any,” Nucatola said.

Cevaer said she doesn’t know the exact time the ticket was sold, but she hopes Casas will call the store after the chaos has settled down.

“I’m hoping the winner really needs the money,” she said. “I was absolutely elated when I found out.”

Contact Max Chesnes at mchesnes@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter at @chesnesmax