Maybe Mondays aren’t so bad after all! Our week started out with a definite rush as two players both claimed big prizes within about an hour of each other.
First up was Marissa Besler of Monticello, who claimed one of the top prizes in our “Colossal Crossword” scratch game. Her $300,000 win was quickly followed by Don Burd of Hiawatha, who claimed a jackpot of $276,296 in the “Extreme Green Progressive” InstaPlay game. That’s the biggest prize ever won in an InstaPlay game since the product debuted four years ago in Iowa!
The same theme runs through Marissa and Don’s stories: Disbelief.
Marissa is 34 and an occupational therapist assistant. She said she was shocked when she realized she’d won $300,000 on a lottery ticket she scratched while waiting on a load of laundry. She said she wandered around her house for a while to catch her breath, then downloaded the Iowa Lottery app on her phone so she could scan her ticket, which she bought at Great Pastimes in Monticello. The app verified her win and she said she was in even more disbelief!
Marissa has some real-world plans for her winnings: She said that having no mortgage or a car payment will be a huge weight off her shoulders.
In Don’s case, it was his wife who initially couldn’t believe he’d won a giant InstaPlay prize. Don said he bought a handful of tickets in the Extreme Green Progressive game on Sunday and realized that one of them had won the game’s jackpot, which had climbed to $276,296. He said he called his wife, Shawnee, right away to share the news. He told her he’d hit the game’s jackpot and then said how much it was. He said she really didn’t believe him, but it was definitely real!
Burd, 56, who owns the Otter Creek Country Store in Robins where bought his winning ticket, said he’s still figuring out exactly what he’ll do with his winnings. But he'll definitely continue to help a good cause in his area. Burd donates the fuel needed by his local fire department to help support its critical work.
Congratulations, Marissa and Don! Thanks for helping our week get off to a great start. Woo-hoo, indeed!
Hi, Bev. The Powerball drawings are held in Florida, while the Mega Millions drawings are held in Georgia. And as you have said, there will be more winners in places where more tickets are sold. Another way of putting it is that if 5 percent of lottery tickets are sold in a particular area, you expect to find about 5 percent of overall winners there, and that's been the case with the Iowa Lottery.
Posted by: Mary Neubauer | October 15, 2020 at 02:24 PM
I get discouraged each time I see the Million Dollars Game winners 99.9% of the time being from other states. Iowa started the Power Ball game & very seldom is there an Iowa winner in the millions winning games. It somehow seems unfair that there aren't more big win games for Iowa players only. I know, population density supposedly is the reason, but if a million people buy a ticket, the state they bought it in shouldn't determine that's where the winner should be even though more people purchased there. In what state are the winning numbers drawn?? Maybe it's just me but something just doesn't seem right.
Posted by: Bev Gutermuth | October 10, 2020 at 12:06 PM
Hi, Steve. That's right. Don's last win was around Christmas time in 2018. Here is a direct link to the information on our website about his win from that time: https://ialottery.com/Pages/Pressroom/PressReleaseDetail.aspx?winnerID=291
Posted by: Mary Neubauer | October 06, 2020 at 12:48 PM
This is his second big InstaPlay win. He also won nearly $65,000 on a Jackpot Party Progressive ticket bought at his convenience store in December 2018.
Posted by: Steven Bates | October 06, 2020 at 12:39 PM