SIOUX CITY WOMAN SEES $25,000 WIN AS MIRACLE

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Tanya Montgomery Wins Top Prize Playing "Bingo Night" Scratch Game

DES MOINES, Iowa – After scratching five nonwinning "Bingo Night" tickets, a Sioux City woman was in utter disbelief when she scratched her last ticket and it revealed the top prize.

Tanya Montgomery, 42, said she was so shocked she couldn't do anything but stay calm.

"It hasn't sunken in yet. I just believe it's a miracle! I'm so blessed," Montgomery said.

Montgomery said she likes to play scratch games, but was never expecting to win the top prize.

"I never would've expected… You know, maybe $100, maybe $200, but $25,000? That's the most money I've ever had in my life!" Montgomery said.

Montgomery, who works the night shift as a Certified Nurse's Assistant for Countryside Retirement Home in Sioux City, said judging by how calm she and her two daughters are, the news still has not really hit them.

"I just don't know what to say," she said.

Montgomery, who recently moved home to Iowa after living in Georgia for a short time, said she has big plans for her winnings.

"Well number one, I definitely need to get a new place to live and buy new furniture. I just want to start all over," Montgomery said.

Montgomery claimed her prize Jan. 19 at the Iowa Lottery's regional office in Council Bluffs. She bought her winning ticket at Select Mart, 2825 Gordon Dr. in Sioux City.

Bingo Night is a $2 scratch game. Players try to match any complete horizontal, vertical or diagonal line, four corners, or an "X" pattern on one of the four Bingo cards to win the corresponding prize in the prize arrow that points to their card. The overall odds of winning a prize in the game are 1 in 3.57.

Nineteen top prizes of $25,000 are still up for grabs in Bingo Night, as well as 41 prizes of $2,500, 85 prizes of $500 and more than 700 prizes of $250 and $150.

Since the Iowa Lottery's inception in 1985, more than $2.4 billion has been awarded in prizes and more than $1.2 billion has been raised for state programs.