MARENGO WOMAN WINS $30,000, PLANS CRUISE

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Victoria Moore Wins Top Prize in Scratch Game

DES MOINES, Iowa - An Iowa County woman is packing her bags now that she's claimed a large lottery prize.

Victoria Moore, 57, of Marengo won $30,000 playing the “Crossword” (green newsprint) instant-scratch game. She purchased the winning ticket at Ampride, 2205 Highway 6 Trail in Marengo and claimed the prize at the Iowa Lottery's regional office in Cedar Rapids.

Moore said she's planning to take a vacation this spring with a friend.

“I get to go on a cruise I've been wanting to go on for the last 10 years,” she said. “I'm looking at the Carribbean [or the] Cayman Islands or someplace different - someplace warm. [I want to] go someplace [where] the sun is shining and it's at least 70 degrees.”

Moore said she'll also help out her children and buy her husband something special.

“He wants a snow blower and I told him if we bought one, we'll never have snow again,” she joked.

Crossword (green newsprint) is a $3 scratch game. Players win by uncovering at least three complete words in the ticket's puzzle. If a player uncovers 10 words, he/she wins $30,000. The overall odds of winning in the game are about 1 in 4.

Five top prizes of $30,000 are still up for grabs in the game, as well as approximately seven prizes of $3,000, about 80 prizes of $300 and approximately 400 prizes of $100.

The new Crossword scratch game (purple newsprint) is also being distributed to retailers beginning this month. Eighty top prizes of $30,000 are available in that game. The overall odds of winning in the new game are also approximately 1 in 4.

Since the Iowa Lottery's inception in 1985, more than $2.1 billion has been awarded in prizes and more than $1.1 billion has been raised for state programs.