Lottery Ticket Nets $1 Million

The excitement is growing for one Jasper County farmer who won a hefty prize from the Georgia Lottery.

Joseph Forbes of Monticello won a $1 million top prize playing the new instant game $1,000,000 Grand Casino.

Mr. Forbes, who harvests 240 acres of pine trees, intends to purchase a new tractor with his windfall.

“I want to pay off bills and go deer hunting,” he said.

Mr. Forbes and his wife, Lisa, went to the Georgia Lottery office in Macon to redeem their prize.

Mrs. Forbes said that after Mr. Forbes realized he really had won, and shared the news with her, they put the ticket away in a safe place. She joked with him that she had to know where the ticket was too, in case something happened to him overnight.

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Of course, it did not, and they headed out together to visit lottery officials. Mrs. Forbes said that it wasn’t good enough for Mr. Forbes to put the ticket in his wallet, instead he wore his travel wallet, which holds his passport and other important items around his neck, and stuck it inside his shirt. He was taking no chances on something happening to destroy his new found wealth.

Mrs. Forbes echoed Mr. Forbes’ remarks, saying that they did not plan anything extravagant. She said she and her sisters have been talking about taking a trip and this might speed the talks up, but by and large, she doesn’t foresee any change to their daily routines.

Mrs. Forbes works at the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office, and Mr. Forbes works part time at Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center, having retired from a previous position.

Georgia Lottery representatives presented Mr. Forbes with an oversized check Monday at Larry’s Four Way, located at 9160 Hwy. 212 W. in Monticello, where he purchased the lucky ticket.

“I was in disbelief like I was reading it wrong,” said Mr. Forbes, 58. “Then, it kind of hit me like, ‘Yeah it was right!’”

Unlike the oversized check pictured, the amount of money the Forbes’ actually received was somewhat less, as a good bit was withheld for income tax.

Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corp. has returned more than $13.6 billion to the state of Georgia for education.

All Georgia Lottery profits go to pay for specific educational programs, including Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship Program and Georgia’s Pre-K Program.

More than 1.4 million students have received HOPE, and more than 1.1 million 4-year-olds have attended the statewide, voluntary prekindergarten program.

For more information on the Georgia Lottery Corp., visit www.galottery.com and www.lotterybenefitsgeorgians.com.