A $20 scratch-off ticket bought at a gas station in Panama City just turned into a life-changing payday for a Tampa woman. Mercedes Nunez, 34, claimed a $5 million top prize from the Florida Lottery's 200X The Cash game, one of only eight such jackpots built into the entire game.
According to the Florida Lottery, Nunez bought her winning ticket from the Murphy USA station at 1405 W. 15th Street in Panama City. As reported by the West Orlando News, the Florida Lottery announced that Nunez claimed her prize from 200X The Cash and opted to walk away with a one-time lump-sum payment rather than waiting on an annuity.
Nunez made the trip to Florida Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee on June 29 to officially claim her winnings, per the Herald-Tribune. Rather than the full $5 million prize, she chose the cash option, which the Florida Lottery lists at $2,779,400 — the same figure confirmed in the agency's own winning-ticket records.
Four of Eight Top Prizes Still in Play
200X The Cash is a $20 scratch-off game carrying a $5 million top prize and overall odds of 1-in-2.96, according to the Florida Lottery. The game features more than 6.9 million winning tickets in total and offers more than $313 million in cash prizes across all tiers.
Of the eight $5 million top-prize tickets built into the game, four remained unclaimed as of the Florida Lottery's accounting, the same report notes. The Herald-Tribune's account, drawing on the same lottery data, put the claimed count at four as of October 5, meaning plenty of players still have a shot at matching Nunez's windfall.
Florida's scratch-off games aren't exactly a rare source of big winners this year. In May, one scratch-off player turned a $20 ticket bought at a Publix into a $10 million prize, the Herald-Tribune reported, while another player spent just $10 to win $2 million.
A Record Year for Scratch-Off Sales
Nunez's win comes amid a banner stretch for Florida's scratch-off business. Scratch-off retail sales hit a record $7.093 billion in 2025, narrowly edging out the previous high of $7.091 billion set in 2022, according to PlayUSA. That marked a 6.84% jump year over year, with scratch-offs now making up 74% of all Florida Lottery sales.
Those sales translated into real money for players and the state alike. Players won $5.23 billion in prizes from scratch-off games in 2025 while retailers earned $425 million in commissions, PlayUSA reported, and the games generated more than $1.21 billion for the Florida Educational Enhancement Fund that year. The Gold Rush Multiplier family of games alone pulled in $1.29 billion in sales, or more than 18.3% of total scratch-off revenue.
Statewide, scratch-off games accounted for approximately 74 percent of Florida Lottery ticket sales in fiscal year 2025-2026 and have awarded more than $73.5 billion in prizes since their inception, creating 2,544 millionaires along the way, per the original report. Those scratch-off prizes have generated more than $21.6 billion for the state's educational enhancement trust fund since the games began.
Lottery's Broader Impact on Education
The Florida Lottery says it has contributed more than $51 billion to enhance education statewide and has sent more than one million students to college through the Bright Futures Scholarship Program. The agency reinvests 99 percent of its revenue into Florida's economy and pays commissions to more than 13,600 lottery retailers across the state, including the Murphy USA location where Nunez bought her ticket.
Since the lottery's founding in 1988, its games have paid out over $110 billion in prizes and created more than 4,900 millionaires. Nunez now joins that growing list, having turned a single $20 ticket into a multimillion-dollar payday, with four of 200X The Cash's eight top prizes still unclaimed.
