AFTER SEVERAL DAYS, DALLAS COUNTY WOMAN
FINALLY DISCOVERS $30,000 PRIZE

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Lois Smith Wins Top Prize Playing the "Crossword" Scratch Game

DES MOINES, Iowa – After leaving the ticket sitting on her end table for several days, a Dallas County woman finally scratched her "Crossword" ticket and discovered she had won the top prize.

Lois Smith, 74, said she could barely believe her eyes when the ticket revealed the $30,000 prize.

"I've had this several days. I'd sit down each night and do one. I started scratching and you start to notice, 'This one's going to be something.'" Smith said. "I gave it to my daughter and said, 'Check it out.' And she said, 'You've got ten words!' She was ecstatic."

Smith, who is from Dexter, said she and her daughter Jolene enjoy playing Crossword because it takes a while to finish.

"I just couldn't believe it," she said.

Smith, who is retired, has told three of her daughters and two of her friends about her win.

"They just say, 'You're kidding!' They're in shock," Smith said. "One of my friends said, 'For some reason, I don't feel sorry for Lois today.'"

Smith plans to use some of her winnings to do home repairs.

"This is just great. You hear about it all the time happening to other people, but happening to you, you think, 'No, no. That can't be,'" Smith said.

Smith claimed her prize Tuesday at the Iowa Lottery's headquarters in Des Moines. She purchased her winning ticket at Dahl's, 15500 Hickman Rd. in Clive.

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.

Eighty prizes of $30,000 are still up for grabs in Crossword as well as 120 prizes of $3,000, more than 1,700 prizes of $300 and more than 8,240 prizes of $100.

Since the Iowa Lottery's start in 1985, its players have won more than $2.4 billion in prizes while the lottery has raised more than $1.2 billion for state programs.