FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BOISE, Idaho – Charles Zettner is starting out the New Year as the Idaho Lottery’s newest millionaire. Zettner was the million-dollar winner for this year’s Idaho Lottery $1,000,000 Raffle.  

“I saw a crawl on the TV that said the winning ticket was sold in Jerome County,” said Zettner on how he learned he had the winning ticket.  “I went to work and there was an article in the paper, on the front page. When I looked at the number, I thought, I’ve got a ticket that’s close to that number.”

Zettner worked all day and could not wait to get home to check his tickets.  Admittedly, he has had a few sleepless nights since then while holding onto the ticket until bringing it to the Lottery offices in Boise on Monday morning.  

The winning ticket was purchased from the Tobacco Connection off Lincoln in Jerome.  “I had gotten back from deer hunting but had hurt my knee,” explained Zettner on when he bought the ticket. “I knew the game was on sale and that I needed to buy a couple of tickets, so I borrowed my buddy’s crutches and went to the store for beverages and Raffle tickets.”

A long-time resident of Jerome, Zettner plans to take a trip and then invest his winnings.    

“I’m smiling under the mask,” said Zettner of the photos taken with his oversized souvenir check.  Then, as he was presented with the actual check he added, “That’s alright, that’s a lot more than I had yesterday.”  

For their part in selling the winning ticket, Tobacco Connection receives a bonus from the Idaho Lottery of $20,000.

This is the fourteenth Idaho $1,000,000 Raffle offered by the Idaho Lottery.  This year, the game sold out on December 4, 2020 and generated over $800,000 to benefit Idaho public schools and buildings.  

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The Idaho Lottery responsibly provides a variety of entertaining games featuring Powerball, Mega Millions, Scratch GamesTM, 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 $4.2 billion in products, awarded more than $2.6 billion in prizes to players, returned $249 million in retail commissions, and distributed $961.5 million in Lottery dividends to Idaho public schools and buildings. To learn more, please visit www.idaholottery.com.