CLINTON WOMAN STUNNED BY RANDOM LUCK

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Amy Kent Wins Top Prize Playing the "Treasure Hunter" Scratch Game

DES MOINES, Iowa – One Clinton woman said she was stunned to win the top prize of $30,000 playing the lottery's "Treasure Hunter" game because she doesn't play very often.

Amy Kent, 21, said she doesn't play lottery games a lot, but when she does, she always plays the Treasure Hunter game.

"The only reason I bought that ticket is because it's a fun game. I don't usually play the lottery very often, but when I do it's always that game," Kent said.

Kent said when she uncovered the top prize, she checked her ticket several times before telling her family, who was home with her at the time.

"I looked at it quite a few times. I went upstairs and looked at my mom and said, 'Mom, I think I won $30,000!' She goes, 'No way, no you didn't!' And I looked at her again and said, 'Yeah, I'm pretty sure I won $30,000!'" she said.

Kent and her mother went back and forth trying to decide what to do when it finally sunk in that the win was real.

"She just kind of looked at me and said, 'You won $30,000!'" Kent said.

Kent then woke up her sleeping brother to tell him the news and the whole family celebrated.

"It was just my family sitting in the living room at like 11 o'clock at night celebrating because I'd won $30,000. It was tough to go to sleep," Kent said.

Kent added she'd told other family and friends the news, but they didn't believe her until she sent them photos of the ticket.

It took Kent almost a week to have free time to claim her prize, as she is currently a full-time student at Ashford University in Clinton. She claimed her prize Friday at the Iowa Lottery's regional office in Cedar Rapids.

"I e-mailed my teacher and told him, 'You know, this is a weird excuse, but I just won $30,000 so I'm going to have to miss class today,'" she said with a laugh. "So he said, 'Good for you; enjoy. See you Monday!'"

Kent plans to use some of her winnings to pay bills and buy a new guitar.

"I don't think you should play constantly, but anybody has the opportunity to get lucky. If you give up, you're never going to get that big win," she said. "It's kind of the same with life in general; if you never try something, you're never going to succeed at it. Three dollars can turn into $30,000!"

Kent purchased her winning ticket at Lyon's Filling Station, 266 Main Ave. in Clinton.

Treasure Hunter is a $3 scratch game. Players win a prize by first uncovering the "Coordinates For Treasure Map" and then uncovering the corresponding squares on the "Treasure Map." If a player completely uncovers a symbol, they win the prize shown in the prize legend for that symbol. Players can win up to $30,000. The overall odds of winning in the game are about 1 in 3.93.

Two prizes of $30,000 are still up for grabs in Treasure Hunter as well as two prizes of $3,000 and more than 75 prizes of $300.

Since the Iowa Lottery's start in 1985, its players have won more than $2.4 billion in prizes while the lottery has raised more than $1.2 billion for state programs.