MASON CITY WOMAN WINS $21,000 LOTTERY PRIZE

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12 Years After Winning Car From the Lottery, Janet Marvin Wins Another Big Prize

DES MOINES, Iowa – Twelve years after she won a new sports car in a lottery game, a Mason City woman has won the top prize of $21,000 in another scratch game!

Janet Marvin, a home health aide, claimed a $21,000 prize Monday at the lottery"s regional office in Mason City. Marvin, 50, won the top prize in the "Hot Hand" scratch game. She said the amount she thought she had won kept going up as she played her ticket.

"First I thought I won $2, and then I thought, 'OK, it's $21,' but then it had extra zeroes, so I was really excited," she said.

Marvin's big prize was her second in a lottery scratch game. She’d won a Ford Mustang in the Iowa Lottery's "Mustang Money" scratch game that was sold from 1996 to 1997.

Marvin bought her winning "Hot Hand" ticket at Hy-Vee Gas, 1503 Fourth St. S.E. in Mason City. She said she played her ticket in her car by herself, but soon called family members to share the good news. She plans to share her winnings with family and to buy special Christmas presents for the clients she serves as a home health aide. And, she has some plans for the Mustang, which she still owns.

"That car and I will be together 'til one of us dies," Marvin said. "But it's 12 years old and I do want to fix it up."

Hot Hand is a $2 game with a card-playing theme. Players scratch off the latex on the play area to reveal cards in "your hands" and the "dealer's hand." If the total of any of your hands beats the dealer's hand, you win the prize shown for that hand. If any of your hands totals 21, you win double the prize shown for that hand. The overall odds of winning in the game are 1 in 3.74.

Six top prizes of $21,000 have yet to be claimed in Hot Hand, along with more than 300 prizes of $210 and thousands of smaller prizes.

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