Iowa Lottery

Five Dollar Win Translates To $10,000 Win For Cedar Rapids Woman

Kayla Arneson Wins Top Prize Playing the "Royal Riches"" Scratch Game

  Hear Kayla tell her story.

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DES MOINES, Iowa - A Cedar Rapids woman used her $5 pull-tab ticket win to purchase a "Royal Riches" instant-scratch ticket and ended up winning a top prize of $10,000.

Kayla Arneson, 23, said she and her fiancé, Jaden Newman, were killing some time before their bank opened by playing some lottery pull-tab tickets.

"We won like $5 off of those, so we went and bought two Royal Riches tickets and while we were waiting for my bank to open we scratched the tickets," Arneson said. "And that's when I realized I won the $10,000."

Arneson said she was in complete disbelief of the win.

"Honestly, at first I thought it was a joke. I just didn't think it could be real," she said.

Arneson claimed her prize Tuesday at the Iowa Lottery's regional office in Cedar Rapids. She said she didn't get any sleep over the long holiday weekend.

"We were like, 'It sucks that it's even a holiday weekend!'" Arneson joked.

Arneson, who works for Casey's in Cedar Rapids, purchased her winning ticket at Hy-Vee, 20 Wilson Ave. S.W. in Cedar Rapids.

Arneson said she plans to use some of her winnings toward she and Newman's wedding.

"We had a date set but then we had money issues, but now those are all gone!" Arneson said.

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