TEL AVIV - Persistence paid off for an Eritrean migrant in Israel who spent hours going through scratch cards he bought and ultimately found a winning ticket worth 1 million shekels (278,000 US dollars).

Michael Galilov, the owner of the south Tel Aviv kiosk where the winning ticket was sold, told Channel 12 early Thursday that the winner was too overwhelmed to immediately grasp its significance.

"At that moment he was stunned," Galilov said. "We all were stunned."

The winning ticket that the man purchased costs 100 shekels in Israel, and it was unclear from the Channel 12 report how many tickets the man purchased. Galilov said that after going through so many cards, the man’s friends had tried to tell him that it might be time to give up, but he was determined.

A video taken at the kiosk shows the winner joyfully hugging and shaking hands with others at the shop.

Many African asylum seekers live in south Tel Aviv, usually in poor conditions. Last year, Israel shelved plans to deport some 40,000 African migrants.

Israel has until now classified asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea as illegal immigrants, with asylum applications approved almost only in exceptional cases.