Wild Card Jackpot Winner! Nampa Man Claims $245,000

Posted on April 22, 2013 by

BOISE, Idaho – Moments before informally accepting a ceremonial check for his Wild Card jackpot win at Idaho Lottery offices in Boise, Robert Hibberd of Nampa received a phone call from his brother.  The two spoke briefly before Hibberd explained he was in the middle of something and quickly hung up without telling his brother where he was or what he was doing.

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“He has no idea I’m at the Lottery or that I just won $245,000,” laughed Hibberd. 

Hibberd bought his winning ticket at Greenhurst Chevron in Nampa for last Saturday night’s Wild Card draw.  He was in the store on Sunday checking a Powerball winner and decided to check his Wild Card ticket, too.  He handed it to the clerk who scanned the ticket and informed Hibberd he needed to claim his ticket in Boise.

“I knew it had to be a lot, but I didn’t know how much it was,” explained Hibberd.  “I finally looked at the numbers and saw I had the big winner. I started calling people!”

Hibberd plans to use his winnings to open a business with his wife, Pretty Paws Dog Grooming. 

“This couldn’t have come at a better time for us, thank you,” added Hibberd.

For their part in selling the winning ticket, Greenhurst Chevron will receive a bonus from the Idaho Lottery for $20,000.

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$245,000 Wild Card jackpot winner sold in Nampa!

Posted on April 22, 2013 by

Check your tickets! Idaho has another jackpot winner. The Idaho Lottery has confirmed that one winning ticket matched all five of the first numbers and the Wild Card from Saturday night’s draw and is worth $245,000. The jackpot winning ticket was sold at an Idaho Lottery retail location in Nampa. The winning numbers were 05, 14, 21, 28, 32 and the Wild Card was the King of Clubs.

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Including the jackpot winning ticket, there were 2,888 winning tickets in Idaho from Saturday night’s draw on Wild Card.

Good luck and thanks for playing the Idaho Lottery!

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Three Big Winners within One Hour on Tax Day! $50,000 and $100,000 from Boise, $250,000 from Twin Falls

Posted on April 16, 2013 by

BOISE, Idaho – Debt free on tax day.  John Miles of Twin Falls proudly made that statement yesterday after claiming the last top prize of $250,000 on the Idaho Lottery’s Scratch GameTM Silver & Gold.  Miles bought his ticket between stops at grocery stores last Saturday from the luckiest store in Twin Falls, the Oasis Stop-n-Go on Addison Road.

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“Thirty-two is my new lucky number,” said Miles who uncovered the number 32 on his scratch ticket, then matched it in the play area and won one-quarter million dollars. “This couldn’t come at better time for me and my family.  We’ll be paying off the note on my house and the credit card and be debt free!”

This is the third $250,000 winning scratch ticket in the past two years sold at the Oasis Stop-n-Go located at 2220 Addison in Twin Falls.  For their part in selling the ticket, Oasis will receive a bonus from the Idaho Lottery of $20,000.

Joining Miles in the winners lobby at the Idaho Lottery was $100,000 winner Rocky Hansen, who purchased his winning ticket from the Jacksons at 897 Cole Road about 3:00 a.m. on Saturday after coming home from work.

“I stopped in to get a few things for the next morning and the clerk asked me if I needed anything else.  I said ‘Yes, how about $100,000?’ but bought the $10 Word O’ Rama ticket instead,” laughed Hansen when he claimed his prize.  “Turns out, I got what I wanted!”

Hansen claimed the last top prize on the Idaho Lottery’s Scratch Game Super Star Word O’ Rama.  Hansen plans to buy a new vehicle and invest the remainder of his winnings. For their part in selling the ticket, Jacksons will receive a bonus from the Idaho Lottery of $10,000.

Shortly before Hansen claimed his prize, Sue McCool and Horst Moll claimed the last top prize of $50,000 on the Scratch GameTM Bubble Gum Big Bingo.  Their ticket was purchased at Albertsons on Federal Way on Sunday evening.  The pair of friends are avid travelers and plan to visit Europe to visit family with their winnings.  For their part in selling the winning ticket, Albertsons will receive a bonus of $5,000 from the Idaho Lottery.

All three big winners on Tax Day found themselves in the Idaho Lottery Winner’s Lobby within an hour of each other to claim their prizes.

“It was one of the more memorable tax days in Idaho Lottery history,” said Idaho Lottery Director Jeff Anderson.  “We’ve had big days with multiple winners before, but we can’t recall this many large winners in such a short time frame and all on tax day.”

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Tax Relief is Coming Soon! Lottery to Launch Hot Lotto Sizzler with ALL Cash Jackpots, Taxes Paid

Posted on April 15, 2013 by

BOISE, Idaho – The Idaho Lottery is debuting it’s version of tax relief for players that win the Hot Lotto Sizzler jackpot beginning after May 15, 2013.  The withholding tax will now be paid by the Lottery on behalf of the lucky winners.  The jackpot will be paid 100% in cash.  Players who win the advertised jackpot will receive the entire jackpot amount.

“Hot Lotto Sizzler is a unique game that fits well into our draw game portfolio between Wild Card and Mega Millions for the size of jackpots awarded,” said Jeff Anderson, Idaho Lottery Director. “We’ve taken this successful game and improved it.  When players win the Hot Lotto Sizzler jackpot now, they get paid the entire jackpot – every last penny of the advertised amount in cash.”

“One of the most common questions we receive when someone wins a big prize is ‘how much is that after taxes?’” added Anderson.  “We can now say with certainty, that if the jackpot is $2 million, the player will receive a check from us for no less than the entire amount. We pay what we say.”

The new version of the game will begin sales on May 12, 2013 after 4 a.m. with the first draw on May 15, 2013. A draw down for multi-draw players commenced on April 10th, the last day players could purchase a 10-advance multi-draw ticket for Hot Lotto.  Each subsequent draw will reduce the multi-draw advance purchase by one draw until May 11. The advance ten-draw feature will be restored on May 12, 2013 when the new game’s sales begin.

Hot Lotto is played in similar fashion to Powerball and Wild Card, with drawings on Wednesday and Saturday night.  And, like Idaho’s Weekly Grand game, players win the entire jackpot prize. Hot Lotto players select five numbers from 1 to 47 and then one Hot Ball number from 1 to 19. Each play with the Sizzler option costs $2.  The Sizzler option multiplies your non-jackpot winning prize by 3. So the second place prize, with sizzler option, will now be $90,000! Match 4 with the Sizzler option and the player will win $9,000! Players may also play regular Hot Lotto for just $1 per play, but any non-jackpot prizes will not be multiplied by 3.

Hot Lotto is a multi-state game played only in 16 lotteries across the United States, mostly with smaller populations.  The biggest jackpot in the game’s history was $19.97 million in January 2007. Idaho’s last Hot Lotto jackpot winner was Steve Colson, Caldwell, who won $2.67 million on Hot Lotto in June 2012.  The current Hot Lotto jackpot is $4.68 million.

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Sandpoint Woman Wins $30,000 on Scratch Ticket from Ponderay

Posted on April 11, 2013 by

BOISE, Idaho – Last Friday night, Merissa Grotjohn of Sandpoint, stopped in the Sand Creek Schweitzer Conoco in Ponderay with a friend, looking for something fun to do. Self-admittedly, she never plays Idaho Lottery scratch tickets, but after some encouragement and advice on which games to try from her friend, she purchased two different games for $8.

“I started scratching my Honey Badger Bucks ticket and didn’t see that I’d matched a winning number at first. Then I saw that I had matched a winning number, 16,” explained Merissa on her winning experience. “Then I saw how much I had won.  And then I said a swear word!”

Once she doubled checked with the clerk that she needed to go to Boise to claim her prize, the reality of claiming the game’s last top prize of $30,000 began to set in.  

“I felt like I was going to win something that night, but not this much!” she added. “I can’t believe I won $30,000 from one $3 ticket.”

Merissa has plans to open her own baked goods shop in Sandpoint with her winnings.  For their part in selling the winning ticket, Sand Creek Schweitzer Conoco receives a $3,000 bonus from the Idaho Lottery.

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Money Train to Boise! Post Falls Man Claims $100,000

Posted on April 3, 2013 by

BOISE, Idaho – Jon Bartlett, Post Falls, took a detour on his way home late last night, stopping at the Freeway Jifi Stop in Coeur d’Alene to pick up a few items.  At the last minute, he decided to buy one $10 Money Train scratch ticket that he eventually played in the parking lot of the store.

“At first, I thought I’d only won $100, but then I saw it was a lot more than that,” described Bartlett on when he knew he’d won. “I drove straight to my parent’s house, and honestly, don’t remember putting the truck into park. I woke them up, made them look at the ticket just to be sure I was right.”

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Interestingly, the winning number on his ticket, 26, is Bartlett’s current age. Matching that number won him the first top prize in that game of $100,000.  After calling a few friends and family, he loaded his father and son into his truck and “took the midnight money train to Boise” to claim his prize.  The three drove all night long to arrive in Boise first thing in the morning at Lottery headquarters.

“There’s not a lot of traffic on the highway at 2 a.m.,” added Bartlett who works as a detailer for Findlay Hyundai – Mazda – Nissan.  “We never thought ever that we would be in Boise to claim a big prize from the Lottery. But here we are!”

Bartlett plans to make some vehicle repairs for his family then put the remainder of his winnings into savings for his son’s education.

The Freeway Jifi Stop at 2105 N. 4th Street in Coeur d’Alene will receive a $10,000 bonus from the Idaho Lottery for their part in selling the winning ticket.

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LUCKY BREAK LANDS BURLEY COUPLE $25,000!

Posted on March 21, 2013 by

On a Saturday in mid-March, Rhett Uriguen’s girlfriend broke her ankle.  The following Tuesday, he went to his local Maverik store in Burley to get her a few things.  He had three dollars left over, so he decided to buy a Naughty or Nice Cashword Scratch Game from the Idaho Lottery.  It turned out to be a lucky break.

$25,000 Scratch ticket winner!

“She actually scratched the ticket then started screaming from the other room that we’d won.  I thought we’d won like three bucks,” described Uriguen.  “I must have checked the ticket a hundred times counting all the words.”

Uriguen and his girlfriend won the last “nice” top prize of $25,000 on Naughty or Nice Cashword.  Although they have no immediate plans for the winnings, but had considered looking into getting a house.

For their part in selling the winning ticket, Maverik earns a bonus from the Lottery of $2,500.

 

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