Linn County Man Wins Large Lottery Prize
Don Burd Claims Big Prize In InstaPlay Lottery Game
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CLIVE, Iowa - A Linn County man has won a lottery prize of more than $276,000, the largest prize won to date in an InstaPlay game.
Don Burd, 56, of Hiawatha, won an Extreme Green Progressive InstaPlay jackpot of $276,296. Burd, who owns Otter Creek Country Store, 3445 County Home Road in Robins, stopped by the store on Sunday to buy a handful of tickets.
"All last week, I was thinking to myself, 'Well, this game's got great odds, at 40,000 to 1,' so I thought, 'Maybe today's the day,'" Burd told officials on Monday as he claimed his prize at lottery headquarters in Clive.
The Extreme Green Progressive jackpot starts at $20,000 and increases with each ticket sold in the game statewide until it is won. Burd said that after he realized he'd won, he called his wife, Shawnee, with the news.
"I just kind of called her up and said, 'Hey, I was messing around, playing this crazy lottery game, and I hit the jackpot,'" said Burd, who also won a $64,494 InstaPlay prize in December 2018. "I told her how much it was and she really didn't believe me."
Burd's Extreme Green Progressive prize is the largest InstaPlay prize to date. The previous record InstaPlay prize of $173,725 was claimed by Nick Keeling of Norwalk in July 2018.
Burd said he's still deciding what to do with his winnings, but he will definitely continue to support a good cause in his area. Burd donates the fuel needed by his local fire department to help support its critical work.
"I don't know, might do something fun with it," he said. "I guess I'm going to ponder it for a little bit."
The InstaPlay product combines features from instant-scratch and lotto games. InstaPlay tickets are called "scratchless" because they have no security coating that needs to be removed to determine the prize won. And rather than having supplies of tickets printed in advance like those in traditional scratch and pull-tab games, InstaPlay tickets are printed on demand from the lottery terminal.
InstaPlay games range in price from $1 to $20. For more information, visit ialottery.com.
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