DES MOINES MAN'S LUCK CONTINUES TO GROW

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Shane Kelley Wins Top Prize Playing the "Crossword" Scratch Game

DES MOINES, Iowa – After his girlfriend returned to the car without his scratch tickets, a Des Moines man headed into the store to get them himself and ended up winning a $30,000 prize.

Shane Kelley's winning streak began earlier in the day Sunday when his girlfriend, Nikki, talked him into going to Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino in Altoona. There, Kelley said he won around $300 and used that money to buy the winning ticket.

Kelley's girlfriend typically buys "Crossword" instant-scratch tickets for herself and "Wild Bingo" instant-scratch tickets for him, but on this particular trip she returned with only Crossword games.

"The only reason I bought a Crossword is because that's what she always plays and she wouldn't buy me any Bingos, so I went in there and bought a Crossword just to spite her. And I did a good job of it!" Kelley said with a laugh as he claimed his prize Tuesday at the Iowa Lottery headquarters in Des Moines.

"I bought two Bingos and one Crossword. She had just bought three Crosswords; she won nothing and I won $30,000 on a Crossword," Kelley chuckled. "But I did give her one of my Bingos and she ended up winning $10 on that."

Kelley was at home with his girlfriend when he scratched the ticket. He said he was afraid at first to have her check the ticket, thinking he may have scratched it wrong.

"I think I had like 12 or 13 words, and you only need ten to win," he said.

After celebrating the win with his girlfriend, Kelley sent out a mass text message to his friends telling them the news.

"They just said, 'Hey, come on over, I'll buy you a beer,'" he said.

Kelley, 40, is a freelance drywall subcontractor and said he may use some of the money to start his own business, as well as buy a motorcycle.

"I want to have something to look at and see where the money went," he said.

He bought his winning ticket at Git-N-Go Convenience Store, 4164 Easton Blvd. in Des Moines.

Kelley said from now on, he plans to play Crossword regularly and Wild Bingo every once in a while in hopes he may win the $25,000 prize for that game.

Crossword is a $3 scratch game. Players win a prize 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.

Thirty-five prizes of $30,000 are still up for grabs in Crossword as well as 56 prizes of $3,000, more than 795 prizes of $300 as well as more than 3,780 prizes of $100.

Since the Iowa Lottery's start in 1985, its players have won more than $2.2 billion in prizes while the lottery has raised more than $1.1 billion for state programs.