Lucky 13: One lottery winner behind 13 winning tickets

A mysterious man or woman is the talk of the town in Turkey as it was revealed he or she scratched the winning numbers for the country's "10 Numara" (Ten Numbers) lottery in 13 tickets out of 15.

It is quite a rare feat and the public was cautious when the media reports surfaced. But the National Lottery Administration holding the lottery confirmed it was one person, from Yatağan, a town in the southwestern province of Muğla, who marked up all the winning numbers in all 13 tickets, therefore winning over TL 17,488 for each ticket, a prize the winner shared only with two other winners from Istanbul and Adana.

The winner's identity remains unknown as they have not yet emerged to claim their winnings for the lottery on Monday but the man who sold the winning tickets has been well publicized. Kamil Kaptan has basked in his newfound fame and is enjoying a boom in business. He believes the winner is among one of his frequent customers. Kaptan hopes the winner makes good use of his or her wealth. He is already accustomed to people getting rich through him as he also sold the big-prize-winning tickets in two previous 10 Numara lotteries in 2013 and 2008 as well in Sayısal Loto, another national lottery. "I think this is not a single person. He or she bought the tickets on behalf of other people as well," he told Doğan News Agency.

Each winning coupon will receive a prize of TL 17,488, therefore the lucky customer will receive a total prize of TL 227,344 ($83,798).

As the same coupon was played for 15 times, the prize money was divided by 15 and two other lucky players from Istanbul and Adana provinces will receive a prize of one-fifth of what they could have won if the coupon had only been played once instead of thirteen times.