Kentucky man’s wife urged him to play unique lottery crossword game. Then he won big
A Bowling Green man is $50,000 richer after scratching off a winning Kentucky Lottery ticket, and he owes it all to his wife, who clued him into a game he’d otherwise not have played.
According to a Friday Kentucky Lottery news release, Jeremy Owen stopped for gas in Bowling Green recently and decided to purchase a ticket for the lottery’s Deluxe Crossword Double scratch-off game. But Owen told lottery officials he would have otherwise never chosen to play the game. It was his wife who persuaded him to take a chance.
“She likes the crossword tickets. I don’t,” Owen told the lottery.
His wife, Chelsea Hanson, responded, “I like the crossword games. They give you satisfaction while you play,” the release stated.
According to the official rules for the Kentucky Lottery’s Deluxe Crossword Doubler game, players begin by scratching off 20 letters at the top of the ticket. They can use those letters on the two crossword games printed on the ticket by rubbing letters as they appear in the puzzles.
To win, players have to uncover at least three words in either puzzle. Each puzzle is played separately and attached to separate prizes. If you win in either puzzle and one of the fully uncovered words has a money bag symbol in it, the prize amount shown in the legend doubles.
For the game’s top prize, which is $50,000, players have to uncover 10 words. That’s attached to odds of 1 in 260,000, according to the game’s rules. The overall odds of winning any prize through the game are 1 in 3.96.
When Owen scratched off the ticket in the gas station’s parking lot, he initially thought he’d won $500, but when he scanned it inside, the machine prompted him to check with the store’s associate.
Next thing he knew, Owen and his wife were driving to Kentucky Lottery headquarters in Louisville to collect his winnings, a requirement for big prizes. On Feb. 12, he received a check from the lottery for $35,555 after taxes paid on the winnings.
Owen said he planned to save the money.
The Bowling Green man isn’t the only big Kentucky Lottery winner recently. Last week, the organization announced a Danville resident won a $25,000 a year for life prize.
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