LEE COUNTY MAN CLAIMS $22 MILLION FLORIDA LOTTO™ JACKPOT
~ Retailer Receives $55,000 for Selling Jackpot-Winning Ticket ~

TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Lottery today announced that FLORIDA LOTTO™ winner Miron Popescu, 72, of Ft. Myers, claimed the September 23, $22 million FLORIDA LOTTO jackpot. Popescu chose the one-time, lump-sum payment for the winnings in the amount of $12,883,508.00.

The winning FLORIDA LOTTO Quick Pick ticket was purchased at Coral Lanes, located at 42 Mid Cape Terrace in Cape Coral. Coral Lanes is one of 20 bowling alleys that sell Florida Lottery tickets in the state. The retailer received a bonus incentive of $55,000 for selling the jackpot-winning ticket.

Since 1988, the Florida Lottery has produced more than $8.5 billion in FLORIDA LOTTO prizes to more than 293 million prizewinners, of which 963 were jackpot-winning tickets. Popescu is the 28th FLORIDA LOTTO jackpot winner in Lee County.

Total ticket sales for this jackpot generated more than $16 million for the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund (EETF). Since 1988, the Florida Lottery has contributed more than $20 billion to the EETF, benefiting our students and schools, as well as funding more than one million Bright Futures scholarships. By a two-to-one margin, Florida voters in 1986 approved a constitutional amendment authorizing the state to operate a lottery for the purpose of generating significant additional moneys for education.

One of the Lottery's first On-line games, FLORIDA LOTTO was originally introduced in April 1988 as a once-a-week, multimillion-dollar jackpot game. Twenty-one years later, FLORIDA LOTTO is still one of the most popular games offered by the Florida Lottery and one of the strongest lotto games in the nation. The next FLORIDA LOTTO drawing will be held on Saturday, October 3, at 11:15 p.m. ET with a $7 million base jackpot. Webcasts of Florida Lottery drawings are available on the Lottery's Web site at flalottery.com.

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