Holiday treat: Dalton man wins $52,000 in Win for Life

ATLANTA – Winning a $52,000 Georgia Lottery prize has stacked up to be a real holiday treat for one Dalton man. John Ausec, 71, is one of two players each to win $1,000 a week for a year from matching five out of six numbers plus the Free Ball in the Dec. 5 Win for Life drawing.

Ausec purchased the ticket at Mapco Express #3510, 1822 Dug Gap Road in Dalton, using a set of birthdays to create his lucky combination.

Winning numbers from the Dec. 5 Win for Life drawing were: 3-8-11-26-29-38 and the Free Ball was 42. The second winning ticket was purchased in Grayson.

While reading the newspaper and drinking his morning coffee, Ausec discovered he'd won.

"It is fantastic I won that amount of money," he said.

With his wife, Karen, Ausec intends to take a cruise.

"I'm very, very lucky," he exclaimed.

Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corporation has returned more than $11.2 billion to the state of Georgia for education. All Georgia Lottery profits go to pay for specific educational programs including Georgia's HOPE Scholarship Program and Georgia's Pre-K Program. More than 1.2 million students have received HOPE, and more than 940,000 4-year-olds have attended the statewide, voluntary prekindergarten program.