With your flo-jet carburetor, if the mower is on level ground fuel can't come out from the float bowl gasket (i.e. the gasket at the top of the float bowl, not the one at the bottom of the float bowl) unless the carburetor is flooding. That can only happen if the needle-and-seat are leaking. If fuel is entering the carburetor body, the fuel level has to be up above where the main jet passage enters the body - which is way too high. So, you have to attend to the needle and seat.
Remove the carburetor, dismantle the float bowl, and look at the needle and seat again. If the sealing surface at the end of the needle is perfect you probably have one of two things: misalignment of needle with seat; or a damaged seat. Check that the spring-clip attaching the needle to the float arm will slide along the arm to allow the needle to align itself properly. Assemble the float without the needle and make sure the float will lift up freely past the needle-closed position. If those points are OK, try to get a magnified view of the seat. It may be a bit rough, which would make it leak. If so, there are two possible cures: replacing the seat, and trying to lap the old one in-situ. Quote from manual: "Replacing Pressed in Float Valve Seat Use a #93029 self-threading screw or remove one selfthreading screw from a #19069 flywheel puller and clamp head of screw in a vise. Turn carburetor body to thread screw into seat. Fig. 80. Continue turning carburetor body drawing seat out. Leave seat fastened to screw. Insert new seat #230996 into carburetor body. (Seat has starting lead.)" This is difficult stuff for a beginner, and it is perhaps best done by a local motor mechanic. I've attached the diagram from the manual.
