December 11, 2021
By KAREN VELIE
The California Lottery on Thursday identified the Morro Bay man who won the largest lottery in state history, nearly $700 million, as Scott Godfrey.
Godfrey purchased the $699 million lottery ticket at Albertsons in Morro Bay. He opted for the lump sum payout of $496 million, minus federal taxes.
“It feels great to win big, of course, but I’m especially happy that this jackpot means $78 million was raised for California public education,” Godfrey said in a press release. “Even the times I’ve played in the past and didn’t win, I always felt, well, at least a few bucks of this will be going to help schools.”
In the process of setting up a charitable foundation, Godfrey donated a carload of toys to KSBY’s Season of Hope toy drive on Thursday.
“We are private people, and we intend to stay that way,” Godfrey said. “We’ve also, for a long time, been involved in charitable activities, and now we can really scale those efforts to take full appreciation of this blessing. This money is not about me. It’s about all of the good that can come from it.”