Recent Iowa Transplant Wins $100,000 Lottery Prize
Michael Sliepka Claims Top Prize In '$100,000 Mega Crossword' Game
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CLIVE, Iowa — Three months after moving to Iowa and joking that his lottery luck might improve, a Charles City man is celebrating a $100,000 win.
Michael Sliepka, who recently relocated from Illinois, said the thought crossed his mind shortly after arriving in Iowa.
“I told my brother, 'Oh, maybe I'll have better luck in the lottery in Iowa,'” Sliepka told officials Tuesday as he claimed his prize at the Iowa Lottery's Mason City regional office. “And here, I've only been here three months and I already hit a hundred-grand.”
Sliepka won a top prize in the Iowa Lottery's “$100,000 Mega Crossword” scratch game. He purchased his winning ticket at Kwik Star, 605 Gilbert St. in Charles City.
In the game, players try to complete words with a given set of letters. The more words completed, the larger the prize.
“The last letter gave me six” words, Sliepka said. “I'm looking at the thing and at the bottom it says six red ones, $100,000. I'm like, 'No way!'”
Sliepka took the ticket back inside and asked an employee to double-check it on the store's lottery terminal. Even then it didn't seem real.
“It's one of those where you have dreams that feel like they're real and then you wake up. I'm like, 'I hope this isn't a stupid dream!'” he said with a laugh. “I'm just so full of excitement right now.”
After claiming his prize, Sliepka said he plans to use his winnings to buy a reliable vehicle, pay off debt and set some money aside for the future.
“It's nice to have a safety net,” he said. “I think this eliminated most of my stress.”
The $100,000 Mega Crossword game is a $10 scratch game that features 46 top prizes of $100,000, 92 prizes of $10,000 and overall odds of 1 in 3.29. For more information about this game, and the number of prizes still available, visit www.ialottery.com.
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