A Mississippi player claimed the third $1 million top prize on the state lottery’s Millionaire Maker game after buying the ticket at a Shell station during his usual round. The game launched in January with ten such prizes.
Gulfport Man Wins $1M on a $30 Scratch-Off: Seven Top Prizes Remain
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Key Takeaways
- A Gulfport man claimed the third $1M top prize on Mississippi’s $30 Millionaire Maker.
- The game launched in January with ten top prizes; seven remain unclaimed.
- Mississippi Lottery sent $10.76 million to the state from August sales alone.
Three Millionaires in Eight Months, Seven Prizes Left
The player, who remains anonymous, bought the winning $30 ticket on Monday, Sept. 7, at the Shell in Long Beach and claimed the prize the following day, the Mississippi Lottery said, with reports of the victory still circulating in trade press today.
Per the winner’s explanation, it was a routine purchase. He picks up his favorite draw games and a scratch-off, rotates the stores he buys from, and had already won smaller prizes on Millionaire Maker, which the lottery said kept him coming back to the game. He plans to use his winnings to buy a new vehicle and save the rest.
Millionaire Maker launched in January 2026 with ten $1 million top prizes. Three have gone in eight months, leaving seven, with the lottery is using each claim to remind players to register tickets in its app so a lost one can still be traced.
The day before announcing this win, the lottery said twelve more scratch-off games would end — a routine part of the cycle, but one that closes the claim window on whatever prizes are still outstanding when a game retires. Mississippi gives winners 180 days from the draw date to come forward.
A day after the winner’s announcement, the Mississippi Lottery transferred $10.76 million to the state from August sales. This is money directed under state law to infrastructure and education. Mississippi runs one of the youngest lotteries in the country, with sales starting in late 2019, and players must be 21 or over.
Seven-figure scratch-off and lottery wins have come at a steady clip through the summer. A Michigan woman screamed loudly enough to startle her son when a $1 million scratch-off came in earlier this month, a player won $1 million on his porch the day after house-hunting in August, and a New Jersey player turned a $2 spin into a record $2.95 million online jackpot. Not every ticket makes it that far: an Italian sanitation crew spent days recovering a $1.15 million lottery ticket thrown out over a single word.
