Bartender wins massive sum of cash after getting lottery ticket as a tip

A bartender was surprised when she learned that her bar had sold the winning $72,500 (US$50,000) Powerball ticket — but then she checked a ticket she had received as a tip and realised she was the winner.

According to 33-year-old Taylor Russey, from Missouri, a regular customer at her job at Bleacher's Bar often purchases lottery tickets for fellow regulars and leaves them alongside a cash tip for the workers.

"It's just something nice he does for us," Russey told the New York Post in an interview on Wednesday.

The man, Russey said, wishes to remain anonymous.

The day after, Bleacher's Bar’s Lottery terminal alerted the staff that a winning $72, 500 ticket was sold at the establishment.

“I was like, ‘Guys, who won all this money and didn’t tell anybody?’” Russey, who has worked at the bar for nearly three years, told the Missouri Lottery.

Then she remembered the tip from the night before and scanned it at the bar's lottery terminal. Russey's ticket numbers matched four of the five white-ball numbers, plus the Powerball. The terminal informed her she would have to claim her prize at a Lottery office, as it was worth so much.

“I kind of stood there for a second, looked at the cook and then looked at the ticket before I started laughing. And then I started crying," Russey told the New York Post.

Russey does not plan to spend the money on anything extravagant, but instead is going to use it to get dental work done. She also has no plans to quit her job at Bleacher's Bar.

"I’m not that kind of person,” Russey said. “And this is not going to sustain me for the rest of my life. I still have to work.”

Russey did not immediately respond to Yahoo Lifestyle’s requests for comment.

Words by Hope Schreiber

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