FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

(208) 334-2600

Top Prize Tuesday! Two Big Lottery Winners Win Today

BOISE, Idaho – It’s the Idaho Lottery’s version of two for Tuesday! This morning, the Idaho Lottery had two winners claim top prizes on two different games: $100,000 on Cashword Combo, a Scratch Game, and a jackpot prize of $77,380 from the Idaho-only Weekly Grand Draw Game.

Claudio Valdez bought his Cashword Combo ticket from the Jacksons on Chinden in Garden City last Sunday.

“I was so excited, I showed it to all my family, I just couldn’t believe it,” said Valdez after he scratched the ticket and won the game’s last top prize of $100,000.

While Valdez was claiming his winning ticket, Jim Blanchard from Ogden, Utah walked into the winner’s lobby at the Idaho Lottery holding a jackpot winning Weekly Grand ticket from the September 8, 2012 draw. Blanchard bought his ticket at KC Oil in Malad, along the Idaho – Utah border but had not checked his tickets until returning from a fishing trip to Yellowstone last weekend.

“I had the ticket checked in Idaho Falls, and they told me I needed to take it to Boise to claim it. I knew it was something big, I just didn’t know how big,” said Blanchard.

Blanchard then used an iPhone to check the winning numbers from the Idaho Lottery’s mobile web site. Sure enough, he matched all the winning numbers from the September 8, 2012 draw. Blanchard is the ninth jackpot winner on Weekly Grand since the game debuted in August 2011. He receives $1,000 a week, each week for an entire year after taxes have been paid by the Idaho Lottery.

For their parts in selling their winning tickets, Jacksons will receive a bonus from the Idaho Lottery for $10,000 and KC Oil receives a commission of $7,738.

PHOTOS ARE AVAILABLE.

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ABOUT THE IDAHO LOTTERY

The Idaho Lottery responsibly provides a variety of entertaining games featuring Powerball, Mega Millions, Scratch Games^TM, and PullTabs with a high degree of integrity to maximize the dividend for Idaho public schools and the permanent building fund. Since their inception in 1989, the Idaho Lottery has sold over $2.3 billion in products, awarded over $1.3 billion in prizes to players, returned more than $136.5 million in retail commissions, and distributed $552.3 million in Lottery dividends to Idaho public schools and the Permanent Building Fund. To learn more, please visit www.idaholottery.com.