Lottery player lands prize before Las Vegas vacation. ‘Holy smokes! It’s real!’

Many people set to travel to Las Vegas for vacation have hopes of winning big at the city’s casinos.

But for Brian King, luck was on his side before he left for his trip.

King, a 55-year-old from Tipton, Iowa, bought a Lucky 7 Bonus scratch-off ticket on a whim shortly before his vacation, according to a Feb. 24 news release from the Iowa Lottery.

“We were just headed to Vegas on our vacation, so ‘lucky 7,’ you know, it just kind of went together,” King told lottery officials.

The body shop owner scratched off his ticket at work, where he learned he was a $10,000 winner. The ticket showed he had won, but he didn’t quite believe it until he checked on the lottery’s app.

“Of course you have the app on your phone where you actually check to see if you won’t or not,” King said, according to the release. “I didn’t know what it would do, so I hit it and scanned my ticket and it said, ‘You won $10,000!’ And it’s just like, ‘Holy smokes! It’s real!’”

King plans on saving his winnings, he said.

At $20 per ticket, the Lucky 7 Bonus scratch-off game is among the highest costing Iowa Lottery games. But players could win big, with a top prize of $250,000.

Tipton is about 40 miles southeast of Cedar Rapids.

This story was originally published February 28, 2023 at 10:47 AM with the headline "Lottery player lands prize before Las Vegas vacation. ‘Holy smokes! It’s real!’."