News : Merry Money! Vinton bar owner wins $100k in Iowa Lottery holiday game

DES MOINES, Iowa –A Vinton man said his holidays will be a little brighter this year after winning the first $100,000 top prize playing the holiday-themed instant-scratch game “Merry Money.”

Dan Boddicker, 49, said he was on a break at work when he scratched the ticket.

“I didn’t believe it at first, like everybody says,” Boddicker said.

He said he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, so he took the ticket back to the retailer to have it validated right away.

“I was pretty relieved; I thought I’d played the game wrong or something.”

Boddicker said the staff where he purchased the ticket, which was Roy’s Hometown Grocery, 103 S. K Ave. in Vinton, couldn’t believe he’d won either.

“They just said congratulations and had this blank look on their faces,” Boddicker said.
Boddicker, who is the owner of Mickey’s Bar in Vinton, said he called an employee in to work so he could immediately take his ticket to the lottery’s regional office in Cedar Rapids to claim his prize Friday.

“After I get done with this, I’ve got to go back to work,” Boddicker said.

Boddicker said he still hadn’t gotten over the shock of winning, so he hadn’t decided what he was going to use his winnings for.

Merry Money is a $10 scratch game. Players win a prize by matching any of “your numbers” to any of the “winning numbers.” If they find the “snowman” symbol, they win that prize instantly. If they find the “tree” symbol, they win all 15 prizes shown. The overall odds of winning a prize in the game are 1 in 3.86.

Eight top prizes of $100,000 are left in Merry Money, as well as 15 prizes of $10,000, more than 170 prizes of $300, and more than 720 prizes of $150.

Lottery players can use nonwinning tickets in the Merry Money game and other holiday-themed scratch games for a chance to win some of the season’s hottest electronics and cash prizes in the “Tech The Halls” holiday promotion that runs through Jan. 18. The promotion offers 250 prizes of Sony® electronics along with 25 cash prizes ranging from $500 to $5,000. Players can enter the promotion using nonwinning tickets in the seven holiday-themed instant-scratch games available this season in Iowa. Different levels of prizes are involved for different tickets.

Since the lottery’s start in 1985, its players have won more than $2.5 billion in prizes while the lottery has raised more than $1.2 billion for the state programs that benefit all Iowans.

Today, lottery proceeds in Iowa have three main purposes: They provide support for veterans, help for a variety of significant projects through the state General Fund, and backing for the Vision Iowa program, which was implemented to create tourism destinations and community attractions in the state and build and repair schools.