Cedar Rapids Man Wins $10,000 Prize in New Scratch Game
James Mart Claims Big Prize in 'Beat the Heat' Scratch Game
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CLIVE, Iowa — A Cedar Rapids man said he was stunned after scratching off a $10,000 lottery prize.
"I'm still kind of overwhelmed," James Mart said on Monday as he claimed his prize at the lottery's Cedar Rapids regional office. "The most I won before was $1,000 and I thought that was great. And then when this one said, $10,000, it was like, 'Wow!'"
Mart, 67, won the first prize of $10,000 in the Iowa Lottery's "Beat the Heat" scratch game, which began sales in June. He bought his winning ticket at Hy-Vee Drugstore, 505 Boyson Road NE in Cedar Rapids and scanned the ticket on the store's self-checker.
"I took off my glasses to look at it: 'That can't be right!'" Mart recalled with a laugh. So I cleared the screen and checked it again and it still said $10,000."
Thinking the scanner was malfunctioning, he took his ticket to another retailer, where another scan revealed the same prize amount.
Mart said he planned to save most of his winnings and set some aside for a vacation this fall.
Beat the Heat is a $10 scratch game that features six top prizes of $100,000, 26 prizes of $10,000 and overall odds of 1 in 3.16. For more information about this game, and the number of prizes still available, visit www.ialottery.com.
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