RADCLIFF, Ky. — A Kentucky woman has 25,000 reasons to celebrate Christmas this year. The Hardin County woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, hit the Kentucky Lottery’s Lucky For Life game top prize of $25K for life.
“My dad plays a lot, and I had an itchy palm, so I decided to buy a ticket,” she told lottery officials.
The woman works the night shift and told lottery officials she put the ticket on the refrigerator before going to sleep. She said her dad woke her up in the middle of the night telling her she had won.
“Are you kidding me,” she asked. She and her dad just sat there looking at each other asking, "did this really just happen especially since it’s Christmas?”
Before contacting the lottery office to claim the prize she said they checked the numbers online several times to make sure it was correct.
She claimed the game’s cash option amount of $390,000 rather than annual payments. After taxes, she walked away with a check for $276,900.
What's next? She told lottery officials she plans to use the winnings to pay off student loans.
The winning Lucky For Life ticket matched the first five white ball numbers but not the Lucky Ball to win the game’s second prize in the December 19th drawing. Her ticket cost $6 and included three sets of numbers. It was the first set of numbers, which were a quick pick where the terminal selected the numbers, that were drawn.
The ticket was purchased at the West Point Marathon on South 4th Street in West Point.
The store will receive a bonus of $5,000 for selling the winning ticket.
Click on Kentucky Lottery for information about games.
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