Illinois Man Surprised At Big Iowa Lottery Win

A Quad Cities man who won a $50,000 lottery prize said he initially 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 as he claimed his prize at the lottery’s Cedar Rapids regional office. “So she checks it and she goes, ‘Ro, you won! $50,000!’”

Almanza, 70, of Rock Island, Ill., won the 25th top prize in the Iowa Lottery’s “$50,000 Super Crossword” scratch game. 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 with a laugh. “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 ialottery.com.

About the Iowa Lottery: Since the lottery's start in 1985, its players have won more than $5.6 billion in prizes while the lottery has raised more than $2.4 billion for state programs. Today, lottery proceeds help our state in multiple ways. They support Iowa veterans and their families through the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund. They help the families of Iowa peace officers, firefighters and corrections employees who die in the line of duty. And they provide help for a variety of significant projects through the state General Fund.