A routine stop at a Wawa on East Colonial Drive in Orlando turned into a seven-figure shock for a Central Florida woman who turned a $5 scratch-off ticket into a $1 million top prize.
The win was logged by state lottery officials and appears in the agency’s prize records, and the winner chose to take her windfall as a lump-sum cash payout rather than through an annuity.
According to the Florida Lottery’s winning-ticket ledger, Tatyana Faith Ashe is listed as the claimant of a $1,000,000 top prize dated April 1, 2026, with Wawa #5142 at 14548 E. Colonial Drive in Orlando identified as the retailer where the winning ticket was sold, per the Florida Lottery.
Ashe, 27, claimed her prize at the Lottery’s Tallahassee office and chose a one-time lump-sum payment of $606,600, as reported by the Tampa Free Press. State records list the claim date as April 1.
About the AMERICA 250 FLORIDA ticket
The $5 AMERICA 250 FLORIDA scratch-off was launched as a special America250-themed game with four $1 million top prizes and millions of smaller payouts. The game’s overall odds of winning any prize are about 1-in-4.01, and it includes multiple lower prize tiers that account for most winners statewide, according to the game release and materials from the Florida Lottery.
Privacy and the 90-day rule
Under Florida law, winners of prizes worth $250,000 or more get a 90-day confidential window after they claim their prize before the state can release their name and city. That exemption is spelled out in Chapter 24 of the Florida Statutes and guides how and when the Lottery publicly announces big winners, according to Florida Statutes, Chapter 24.
Scratch-off wins like this are a familiar sight in local headlines, and lottery officials say the games route money back into the state through prize payouts, retailer commissions and transfers to education. A large share of Lottery revenue is returned to Florida’s education programs and local retailers, as outlined by the Tampa Free Press.
As of mid-July, prize-tracking data showed that three of the game’s four $1 million top prizes were still available across Florida, meaning a few more millionaire-making tickets have yet to surface, according to game-prize listings compiled by ScratchOffHub. Players who believe they have matched a top prize are urged to hold on to their ticket and follow the Lottery’s claim instructions.
