Last Saturday evening, Jacob Christopherson of Meridian had a self-described "freak-out" moment, but in a good way. That's when Christopherson began checking his Idaho $1,000,000 Raffle tickets for winners. And he could not believe what he was seeing.

"I had been buying tickets around the 25000th tickets, trying to win one of the $1,000 prizes. I stopped in the Maverik by my mom's house and just bought one to see what the current ticket number was," described Christopherson on the purchase of his ticket and referring to the Idaho Lottery's instant win feature that occurred once each 25000th ticket purchased. "It was just a random purchase."

That random purchased turned out to be the top prize winner in the Idaho $1,000,000 Raffle game, making Christopherson the Idaho Lottery's newest millionaire and the ninth in this game's history.

"I called my mom, I called my girlfriend, I was definitely freaking out, but in a good way," described Christopherson. "I told them I had the $1,000,000 winner, but then had them double check and write the numbers down, too. I wanted to be sure. I'm still shaking. I don't believe it. People don't believe me that I won."

Seeing is indeed believing and Christopherson did present the Idaho Lottery with winning ticket number 087162 on Monday morning at Idaho Lottery offices for payment. His winning ticket was purchased from Maverik at Locust Grove and McMillan in Meridian. This is the fifth year out of the past six years where the top prize winning ticket in the Idaho $1,000,000 Raffle game has been sold at a Maverik location.

Christopherson plans to invest his winnings wisely and use some of it to pursue his passion for playing golf.

The two $10,000 prizes from this year's Idaho $1,000,000 Raffle, one each from Ada County and Canyon County, have not been claimed.

This year's Idaho $1,000,000 Raffle game generated more than $800,000 in benefits for Idaho Public Schools and the State's Permanent Building Fund.

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The Idaho Lottery responsibly provides a variety of entertaining games featuring Powerball, Mega Millions, Scratch GamesTM, and PullTabs with a high degree of integrity to maximize the dividend for Idaho public schools and the permanent building fund. Since their inception in 1989, the Idaho Lottery has sold over $2.95 billion in products, awarded over $1.77 billion in prizes to players, returned more than $172.6 million in retail commissions, and distributed $694.5 million in Lottery dividends to Idaho public schools and the Permanent Building Fund. To learn more, please visit www.idaholottery.com.