Marianna, Fla., man wins free fuel in lottery game

JACKSON COUNTY, Fla. — A Marianna man has won free gasoline for a year from the Florida Lottery.

Gregory Hamilton presented his winning ticket to lottery officials Wednesday morning. He was given 26 gas cards, worth $100 each.

Hamilton, who works on Baxter’s Asphalt crew, said the cards will definitely come in handy.

His son, Jesse, will start his sophomore year at Marianna High School on Monday and will be driving his Isuzu Trooper to school much of the time.

The vehicle, he estimates, gets about 15 miles to the gallon in town and 20 to 22 on the open road. “It sure will help,” Hamilton said, “especially with gas being as high as it is. We don’t go on a lot of long trips, so this’ll probably keep me going for a year, maybe longer.”

The lottery game he won is part of a summer series offered by the Florida lottery. Hamilton almost missed out on collecting his winnings.

“I checked the numbers, but not very close. I missed it, but I put the ticket on a desk and a week or ten days later the clerk where I buy my tickets told me I better check it again if I still had it. She said the lottery had reported a winning number at the store, so I went back and checked it online, and there was my number.”

In this particular game, the numbers are already emblazoned on the tickets, so Hamilton didn’t have any particular connection to them. But now he’s awful fond of the winning sequence — 0207423.

Hamilton will be buying his gasoline at a BP station, choosing it from among three eligible stations suggested by lottery officials. He bought his winning ticket at the Fill-ups station located at the corner of U.S. 90 and State Road 73 in Marianna.