ÔÇïBOISE, Idaho ÔÇô It's not every day someone in Idaho wins a quarter of a million dollars on an Idaho Lottery Scratch Game. And no one from Wallace, Idaho has ever won that much on a Lottery game. That was until Bruce Baraby, a down on his luck contract miner and part-time DJ, played the Idaho Lottery's Idaho Millions and won the game's top prize last week and claimed $250,000 in Boise.

"Wow. That will pay off the house, the truck, a few bills," said a noticeably humbled Baraby in the winner's lobby at Idaho Lottery Headquarters when he was handed his winning check. "This just couldn't have come at a better time."

Like many Gem State residents over the past 15 months, work, especially in mining, has been hard to come by for Baraby in the small, northern Idaho community of Wallace located about 15 miles from the Montana border.

After purchasing the ticket, Baraby kept it in his lunch pail before scratching it. When he did, he didn't believe it was a big winner at first and put the ticket right back in his lunch pail until he checked and confirmed it was the big winner at the store where he bought his ticket.

Baraby bought his winning ticket at HICO in Wallace. For their part in selling the winning ticket, HICO will receive a bonus from the Idaho Lottery for $20,000. Idaho Lottery officials were on hand to present the bonus check to Ted Beamis at HICO in Wallace on Thursday morning.

Idaho Millions debuted in Idaho Lottery retail locations on September 28, 2009. Baraby's big winner is the first of six $250,000 top prizes in the game to be claimed. Baraby is the 9th largest Idaho Lottery winner from northern Idaho since the Lottery began in 1989.

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