A resident of The Villages has claimed a winning lottery ticket worth more than $50,000 that he purchased at a local grocery store over the weekend.
Anthony Nicoletti, who lives in the Village of Fenney, claimed the top prize from the Florida Lottery’s Fantasy 5 evening drawing held on Sunday, May 17. Nicoletti chose the cash option, resulting in a total payout of $50,724.99.
The winning ticket was purchased at the Publix Super Market at Magnolia Plaza, located at 2135 Everglades Lane in The Villages. Nicoletti manually selected the winning numbers for the drawing (6, 19, 22, 34, and 35) rather than opting for a randomly generated “QuickPick” ticket.
Fantasy 5 is a daily game in which players select five numbers from a pool of 1 to 36. The top prize for Sunday’s evening drawing was split between two tickets matching all five numbers. The second winning ticket was sold at the Maher Food Market in Saint Petersburg and was claimed by Moran Montgomery Mckenzie.
Villages-News.com first reported news of the winning ticket on Monday, May 18.
Nicoletti’s win adds to a series of recent lottery successes in the local area. Earlier this month, a 78-year-old resident of the Del Webb Spruce Creek community in Summerfield claimed a single-ticket Fantasy 5 top prize worth $117,957.17.
Additionally, a winning ticket for the same daily game was sold in January at the Pilot Travel Center located just outside of The Villages.