NW Iowa Man Has 'Gut Feeling' To Play The Lottery, Wins Progressive Jackpot Prize
Doug Dornath Claims $9,358.64 Top Prize in 'Loose Change Progressive' InstaPlay Game
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CLIVE, Iowa – A northwest Iowa man said he had a 'gut feeling' to play the lottery Monday and his intuition ended up paying off.
Doug Dornath of Gilmore City claimed a progressive jackpot of $9,358.64 in the Iowa Lottery's "Loose Change Progressive" InstaPlay game, a $1 ticket. InstaPlay is a new lottery product, known as a scratchless scratch ticket.
Dornath bought his winning ticket Monday at Kum & Go, 700 W. Elm Ave. in Pocahontas. He said he redeemed some winning tickets in the game and bought three more tickets.
"And out of those three plays one of them was a $1 winner and so I signed it and turned (it in) and then I said, 'Well, why don't you get me one more of those and the one that I got was the winner!'" Dornath told lottery employees Tuesday as he claimed his prize at the lottery's regional office in Storm Lake.
The 43-year-old said he had been watching the jackpot in the Loose Change Progressive game climb for several days and thought Monday would be a good time to buy a ticket. The Loose Change Progressive jackpot starts at $650 and grows with each ticket sold statewide until someone wins it.
"I had a gut feeling that somebody was going to win that Loose Change (jackpot) on Monday," he said.
Dornath, who manages a farm and works for a local newspaper, said he plans to use a portion of his winnings to pay bills.
"I'm just happy, it's a lot of fun," he said.
InstaPlay combines features from instant-scratch and lotto games and gives players a new option with no numbers to pick, playslips to fill out or wait for a drawing. InstaPlay tickets are "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, as in lotto games like Powerball® and Mega Millions®. But the play style of InstaPlay tickets is similar to that of scratch tickets, with symbols and numbers that need to match in order to win a prize.
InstaPlay games range in price from $1 to $5. More details about how to play these games and the number of prizes still up for grabs in them can be found on the Iowa Lottery's website, www.ialottery.com.
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