High school jackpots: Lottery winners who struck it rich as teenagers

You hit a lot of milestones when you turn 18. You're legally an adult, you can vote, buy cigarettes, and join the military. It's an age when most people are figuring out what their first job will be or where they'll go to college. However, for a lucky few, the biggest question they have to answer when they turn 18 is how they're going to spend their millions.

While most lottery winners are adults well into their 30s and 40s at least, a select few have barely graduated high school before taking home a massive jackpot.

These are true stories of teens who won enough money to retire on before they were old enough to drink.

First time's the charm

18-year-old Juliette Lamour of Ontario, Canada, had a bright future ahead of her in 2023. The teen was a college student with plans to become a medical doctor. However, her future got even brighter when she took her father's advice and picked up her very first lottery ticket, a Lotto 6/49 Quick Pick.

She put the ticket in her purse and forgot about it until she heard that someone from her hometown had won the $46 million jackpot. She finally scanned her ticket and was blown away to see a message that read “Big Winner!”

Because this was her first-ever lottery ticket, Lamour, who was working as a pharmacist's assistant, wasn't sure she had checked it correctly, so she handed it to her boss to make sure it was real. He scanned it again and confirmed that she really was a big winner. She told Ontario Lottery officials:

The pharmacist, his hands went to his head, he fell on his knees. He's like, 'Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!' I was so in shock. ... He showed me the phone. He's like, 'You just won this!' I'm like, 'How many zeroes is that? Let me count!'

The University student was blown away by her good fortune.

"I was crying - happy tears - of course," she said. "I still can't believe I hit the Gold Ball jackpot on my very first lottery ticket!"

She wasn't sure what to do next, so she called her mother. Lamour recounted:

I called my mom, and she answered the phone. I'm like, 'I won the lottery!' She's like, 'No, you didn't!' My co-workers were behind me. They're telling my mom, 'Come and get her! Come and get her!'

"She came to my work, and I gave her the ticket. I was so scared. I already signed it all shaky," she continued. She added that while she plans to save and invest her fortune, she'd also like to use it to explore the world. Lamour stated:

Once school is done, my family and I will pick a continent and start exploring. I want to experience different countries, study their history and culture, try their food, and listen to their language.

Despite her good fortune, she says she still plans to follow a critical piece of advice her parents gave her:

Money doesn't define you. It's the work you do that will define you.

Weekly winner

If you're a teenager living in Canada, you might want to make plans to buy a lottery ticket as soon as you turn 18. At least that's the lesson we’d take away from the story of Juliette Lamour and Charlie Lagarde.

Just like Lamour, Lagarde was turning 18 in 2017 when she stopped at her local convenience store to pick up a bottle of sparkling wine and her first-ever lottery ticket, a $4 instant-win game. She uncovered the ticket and discovered that she had won the game's top prize: $1,000 CAD (the equivalent of $773 USD) every week for the rest of her life.

Now Lagarde had an important decision to make: would she elect to take the weekly payouts or the one-time lump-sum payout of $1,000,000 CAD (equivalent to $773,800)?

While lottery winners almost always take the lump-sum payout, in this case, Lagarde and her advisors thought it made more sense to take the lifetime annuity, since by the time she was 38, she would have earned $1,000,000 and would have the rest of her life to continue collecting her weekly payouts.

Explaining the teen's decision, lottery spokesman Patrice Lavoie explained:

It's without taxes, so it's equivalent to a salary of more than $100,000 a year, so it's a great start in life for that young lady. That was her first lottery ticket ever, and she fell upon a winning ticket.

Lagarde has a passion for photography, and her first purchase with her winnings was a new camera.

Lavoie also spoke to Lagarde's plans for using her new fortune:

She wants to pursue her education, study photography, and dreams about working for National Geographic. She was a real breath of fresh air when she came to our office to claim her prize, with friends and family. All of us at Loto-Quebec are really happy for her.

Happy birthday to you

For Kaleb Heng's birthday, his grandmother decided to buy him the perfect gift, literally. On the day Heng turned 18, his Grandmother gave him a $10 scratch-off ticket called The Perfect Gift.

Heng appreciated the present but didn't scratch it right away, figuring he might win a few bucks at best. Instead, he waited until he had some free time on a road trip to see if he was a winner. Heng told lottery officials:

My mom was driving me to go fishing, and on the way, I scratched it. We had to pull over. It was a million dollars, and I didn't even have an ID yet! We turned around and went home because I had to get an ID before I could even claim the ticket.

Suffice to say, the teen didn't waste any time in securing an ID and collecting his money.

When speaking with California Lottery officials, Heng expressed his feelings as only a California teenager can. “I'm pretty stoked! I certainly wasn't expecting it.”

Heng says that he plans to use the money to pay his college tuition and to invest in his future.

Double down

The only thing better than winning the lottery when you're a teenager is winning the lottery twice. This improbable scenario happened to nineteen-year-old California resident Rosa Dominguez in 2017.

Her incredible run of good fortune began while she was driving home from Arizona and stopped in Paso Robles, CA, to refuel her car. While picking up some snacks at the convenience store, she decided to buy a few instant-win lottery tickets, including a $5 Power 5 game.

She uncovered the ticket and saw that she had won the game's top prize of $555,555. Dominguez told lottery officials that she had no idea how to react to her big win, especially since she was still so far from home and anyone she knew.

"I was so nervous I just wanted to cry," she said.

Little did she know that her big winning streak wasn't over yet. After returning home, Dominguez decided to push her luck and bought a $5 Lucky Fortune ticket from the Valero gas station in Greenfield, CA.

She scratched away the covering and may have been let down to see that this ticket was worth only $100,000. She took both tickets to the state lottery office in Hayward, where she became one of the very few winners to be photographed with two giant checks.

When asked how she planned to spend her new fortune, Dominguez replied like a true teenager, saying she planned to go shopping and buy herself a new car.

From the big house to a bigger house

At eighteen years old, Florida resident Quinn Koffler found himself in a place no teenager wants to be: a jail cell. He was arrested for loitering in Fort Myers, FL, in 2017, but a judge eventually dismissed the charges against him.

A year later, things were looking decidedly up for the teen when he stopped in a 7-11 in Bonita Springs and purchased a $30 Florida Lottery 100X the Cash scratch off ticket. He scratched away the covering and revealed that he had won the game's top prize of $15 million.

Koffler traveled to the state lottery headquarters in Tallahassee to collect his fortune, opting for the lump sum payout of $11.1 million. The store that sold him the ticket will also receive a $30,000 bonus.

When contacted by reporters, he declined to release a statement or participate in any interviews regarding his win and did not say how he planned to enjoy the money.

Moo

You don't have to win millions in the lottery to change your life. Sloan Stanley of Meridian, Kansas, was just four days past her 18th birthday when she decided to buy her first-ever lottery ticket. While she had dozens of games to choose from, she decided to buy a $5 Cash Cow ticket because of her affinity for the animals.

"I bought the Cash Cow ticket because I like cows and thought it was cute," Stanley told lottery officials. "I was in shock that the first ticket I ever bought ended up winning $25,000!"

The first person she told about her win was her father, who double-checked that her ticket was indeed a winner. "My family is all super excited and happy for me, and they still can't believe it!"

She planned to attend Fort Hays State University to study early elementary education. While $25,000 isn't enough to let Stanley retire, she said the money will still have a very beneficial impact on her life. She expressed:

I'm excited to start college later this year, and I hope this will help me graduate without debt!