A Rock Island man who recently won a $50,000 lottery prize said he first thought his prize was much smaller.
“I told my wife, ‘I think I won $75 or $50. Do you want to check it?’” Rogelio Almanza said of his wife, Silva, on Thursday, Nov. 16, as he claimed his prize at the Iowa Lottery’s Cedar Rapids regional office. “So she checks it and she goes, ‘Ro, you won! $50,000!’”
Almanza, 70, of Rock Island, won the 25th top prize in the Iowa Lottery’s “$50,000 Super Crossword” scratch game, according to a Monday Lottery release. He bought his winning ticket at Casey’s, 222 W. Front St. in Buffalo, where he stopped on the way to visit friends.
He scratched the ticket at home. Once his wife confirmed his win, he took it to a local store and asked an employee to check the ticket on the lottery terminal.
“She was happier than I was,” Almanza said in the release. “She was in shock. She’s like, ‘Oh, that’s a good one!’”
Almanza said he plans to share his winnings with his family.
The $50,000 Super Crossword is a $5 scratch game that features 105 top prizes of $50,000 and overall odds of 1 in 3.26. For more information about this game, and the number of prizes still available, visit Iowa Lottery HERE.
