ANAMOSA MAN WINS $10,000 LOTTERY PRIZE

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Kyle Smyth Wins Top Prize Playing the "Roll 'Em" Scratch Game

DES MOINES, Iowa – An Anamosa man won the top prize of $10,000 playing the lottery's "Roll 'Em" instant-scratch game.

Kyle Smyth, 22, was on a road trip to Wisconsin with a few buddies when he decided to pick up a few scratch tickets along the way. He was pretty shocked when he ended up with a $10,000 prize.

"I didn't think I was going to win, so I pretty much already wrote it off," Smyth said.

Smyth had the driver of the car pull over at the next gas station to have the ticket validated. He said his buddies who were in the car couldn't believe he had won either.

"They actually freaked out more than I did! I just told them they weren't going to believe how much I won," Smyth said.

Smyth claimed his prize Thursday at the Iowa Lottery's headquarters in Des Moines. He purchased his winning ticket at Anamosa Travel Mart, 23485 County Road E-34 in Anamosa.

Smyth works as a laborer for T & K Roofing. He said he plans to save some of the money to use over the winter months when he is low on work and to help pay off student loans.

The Roll 'Em scratch game is a $2 game. If any one roll totals seven, players win the prize shown for that roll. If any one roll totals 11, they win double the prize shown for that roll. The overall odds of winning in the game are 1 in 3.86.

Eighteen top prizes of $10,000 are still up for grabs in the Roll 'Em game, as well as more than 945 prizes of $100.

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