Couple plays lottery for 20 years — and it finally pays off with huge CA prize
For the past two decades, a California couple has been trying their luck on lottery games.
Now, their years of lottery play have finally paid off, California Lottery officials said in a July 29 news release.
Each week, Nicholas Gercis and his wife buy lottery scratchers from a few nearby 7-Eleven stores for fun, lottery officials said.
Recently, Gercis said he and his wife have been playing the 50X The Cash Scratchers game.
“It was doing OK for us,” Gercis said, adding that they’ve won a couple $100 prizes.
As the couple scratched their $10 lottery ticket they bought at a 7-Eleven in Eastvale on their patio, it “gave them a little taste of what it was like to win” — a $1 million prize, according to lottery officials.
“It was just, like, you know, just what the heck?!” Gercis told lottery officials of his feeling about “how unbelievable the win was.”
Gercis told lottery officials they plan to use their winnings to pay off their home mortgage and donate to a church.
He said they will invest the remaining funds “for a sense of security.”
Eastvale is about a 50-mile drive east from Los Angeles.
This story was originally published July 29, 2025 at 5:08 PM with the headline "Couple plays lottery for 20 years — and it finally pays off with huge CA prize."
