CEDAR RAPIDS WOMAN CLAIMS $15,000 PRIZE

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Janis Skow Wins First Top Prize in Scratch Game

DES MOINES, Iowa - A Linn County woman recently claimed a large lottery prize.

Janis Skow, 61, of Cedar Rapids won $15,000 playing the “Fire & Dice” instant-scratch game. She purchased the winning ticket at Hy-Vee, 1843 Johnson Ave. N.W. in Cedar Rapids and claimed her prize at the Iowa Lottery's regional office in Cedar Rapids.

Skow said she normally only picks up $1 scratch tickets, but on a whim decided to try the $2 Fire & Dice game.

“I don't know, I just picked it up because I'd bought some other dollar ones and I just had $2 left so I said, ‘Oh, let's just go with that one,’” she said.

When she scratched off the winning dollar amount, Skow said she couldn't believe her eyes!

“It's a good thing I was sitting down because I would have fallen down otherwise,” she laughed. “I had to look at it about a half a dozen times - I'm not kidding - to realize that it was that big. I mean, I thought it was like $1,000, and then I thought, ‘No, that's not right, go put on your glasses.’”

Skow said she's already got plans for her winnings.

“I have to pay off some of my bills,” she said. “It just really surprised me. I was really happy, but … I just couldn't believe it because I never win [anything] like that.”

Fire & Dice is a $2 instant-scratch game. If a player's dice beats “their dice,” then the player wins the prize shown for that roll. If a player finds a “chip” symbol, he or she wins all 10 prizes shown. The overall odds of winning in the game are about 1 in 4.

Skow claimed the first top prize in the game. Nine top prizes are still available in the game, along with 38 prizes of $1,500 and more than 300 prizes of $150.

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.