New Jersey Lottery player receives Shore Thing Card as a Thank You Present From a Parent

TRENTON (July 16, 2025) – When the public school year ended in New Jersey in late June, teachers throughout the Garden State received the typical variety of thank-you gifts from grateful parents: gift cards, coffee mugs, perhaps some scented candles, and in one case: $500,000.

One New Jersey Lottery player, a teacher, received several Scratch-Offs from thankful parents. The thoughtful gifts sat in a stack in the player’s car until a recent July day a few weeks into summer break.

“I had a stack of cards as gifts, and I had forgotten I left them there,” the player said while claiming their prize at the New Jersey Lottery office. “One morning, I went out to the car and thought that I’d see if I won any gas money.”

There was much more than some gas money. After playing two tickets, the player came to a $10 card, The Shore Thing, and quickly realized that they were holding a $500,000 top prize, the first of the game’s three available top prizes.

“It probably wasn’t smart of me (to leave the tickets in the car). I’ve been driving around with my puppy. He could’ve eaten them.”

It’s fitting that a teacher won such a big prize. Thirty cents of every dollar in Lottery sales is contributed to the State pension system, which helps support teachers, along with police, firefighters and other public workers. Since fiscal year 2018, the Lottery has contributed more than $8 billion to pensions.

“I get them as gifts, but I never imagined. For me this is life changing,“ the player said.

More About the New Jersey Lottery

Since its inception in 1970, the Lottery has contributed nearly $33.7 billion to the State, helping to support many worthwhile programs and services. Lottery profits currently help bolster the public employee pension system under a 30-year agreement signed into law in 2017.