Linn County Man Initially Thought His Winning Ticket Must Be Fake
Don Burd of Hiawatha Wins In InstaPlay Lottery Game
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CLIVE, Iowa - A Linn County man said he initially thought someone had given him a fake lottery ticket when he saw symbols on it that looked like he had won a prize of more than $64,000.
"I was kind of like, 'You've got to be kidding me. Somebody must have slipped me a phony one or something. There's no way I'm this lucky,'" Don Burd of Hiawatha recalled with a chuckle as he claimed his prize Monday at the Iowa Lottery's regional office in Cedar Rapids.
Burd won a "JACKPOT PARTY® Progressive" InstaPlay jackpot of $64,494. He purchased his winning ticket on Christmas Eve at the Linn County business he manages, the Otter Creek Country Store, 3445 Country Home Road in Robins.
Burd said he bought some lottery tickets the day before his big win and used the winnings from them to buy some InstaPlay tickets. He said he set them aside and didn't look closely at them until a few hours later.
"Then I was kind of going through them and wondering to myself what one looks like if you win and … 'Wow!'" he said.
Burd said it was a wonderful surprise just in time for the holiday. He said that he and his wife planned to use the winnings to pay some bills and then put the rest in savings.
InstaPlay games combine features from instant-scratch and lotto games to give players an option with no numbers to pick, playslips to fill out or wait for a drawing. InstaPlay tickets are known as "scratchless" because they have no security coating that needs to be removed to determine the prize won. The tickets are printed on demand from the lottery terminal.
The JACKPOT PARTY game has a progressive jackpot that starts at $10,000 and increases with each ticket sold statewide until it is won. The jackpot that Burd won had been growing since early November.
InstaPlay games range in price from $1 to $10. 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.
JACKPOT PARTY® and © 2018 Bally Gaming, Inc. All rights reserved.
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