Lottery Winning Strategy: Here’s How SC Man Won $100,000

KEY POINTS

A man spent $25 a week on the lottery for three months after watching "Lottery Changed My Life"
He won $500 in the first week and gained $100,000 by the seventh
The winner, who has since bought a new car, is still spending $25 a week playing the lottery

Columbia, South Carolina -- A local man who conducted a lottery experiment ended up winning more than $100,000, officials revealed last week.

The unnamed Lowcountry man decided to spend $25 a week on the lottery for three months after getting inspired by an episode of the TLC show "Lottery Changed My Life," the South Carolina Education Lottery (SCLE) said in a statement released Tuesday.

He won $500 on the first week, and a Powerball ticket purchased from the Kwik Fill convenience store located along Yeamans Hall Road in Hanahan secured him another $100,000 by the seventh week, according to the SCLE, which operates the lottery.

"I didn't even know how to play Powerball," said the man, whose ticket matched five numbers from the May 28 Powerball drawing.

The five winning numbers were 2, 39, 50, 61 and 66, while the Powerball number was 15.

While the man initially believed he had only matched two numbers, his wife later noticed four of the white ball numbers and the red Powerball number.

There is a 1 in 913,129 chance to match four white balls and the red Powerball, according to the SCLE.

The man's base prize amounted to $50,000, but it doubled to $100,000 as a "2" multiplier was drawn, and he had spent $1 for Power Play.

The man has since cashed in his prize and bought a car. He is still reportedly spending $25 a week on lottery tickets.

"I'm going to finish out the three months," he said.

Meanwhile, the Kwik Fill in Hanahan received a commission of $1,000.

The jackpot for the Powerball is currently $346 million. The odds of winning it are 1 in 293 million. Meanwhile, the current jackpot for the Mega Millions lottery is $328 million.

No person has won the grand prize for the Powerball since late April when a player in Arizona hit the $473.1 million jackpot.

While there was no grand-prize winner from the Powerball's most recent Saturday drawing, three players from California, Minnesota and West Virginia hit the Match 5 drawing and won $1 million each.

Their prizes would have doubled to $2 million had they hit the Match 5 with the 3X Power Play purchase.