Man buys 162 lottery tickets because of ‘lucky feeling’ and wins $800k

One lottery winner turned out to be psychic, reporting a good feeling about a set of numbers – and another man in the store conveniently overheard his lucky guess

A man put all his bets on one number and bought 162 identical lottery tickets – and struck an incredible $811k jackpot. He spent $339 (£250) on tickets because had a good feeling about numbers 1-7-3-1, he told South Carolina Education Lottery officials.

His prize was the largest amount ever paid out to a single player in a Pick 4 draw. Another player at the same store overheard the man talking about his lucky feeling and decided to play the same numbers – winning $25,400 (£18,781), lottery officials said. New research carried out by The National Lottery earlier this year found half of betters “knew” their numbers would come in.

Some even predicted exactly how much they would win. One lucky winner revealed his wife had a barmy dream they would scoop the prize. He said: “My wife dreamt that she was being chased by a giant lottery ball, number 14 – we won on the 14th of November.”

However, not all “winners” reach their dreams. Another National Lottery player was left devastated after thinking he’d scooped a £50,000 jackpot, only to find out his winnings were significantly less.

Dean Smethurst couldn’t sleep after believing he had won a life-changing sum of money on the Lotto – but his dreams were shattered after a heartbreaking phone call.

Dean said the alert for a huge prize “was an automated message instead which would have been given for any win.”

He explained: “I’d gone in to do a bit of shopping and I thought I’d check to see how I’d gone on in the previous Saturday’s draw. The receipt said I’d won a prize the store would not be able to pay out and that I should contact Camelot immediately.”

The store staff even applauded him, adding to his excitement. Unable to sleep due to the thrill, Dean began planning how to spend his winnings, with home renovations and a luxury family holiday to Barbados on the cards.

However, it turned out to be a measly £6 prize.

The player attempted to claim a prize during a ‘draw break’, when National Lottery sales are suspended while a draw takes place.

The prize couldn’t be paid out at that time – because the ticket was still entered into a ‘live’ draw – so a validation slip was printed instead.

This generic slip is used for a number of scenarios – it’s not exclusively used for high-tier prizes. He said: “I never thought to check my numbers, I didn’t think a company as large as Camelot could have got it wrong, I didn’t understand.”

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