“Snow me the money!” exclaimed Maria Fonseca, Aberdeen, as Lottery officials presented her with an oversized souvenir check for $50,000 in their Boise office. Fonseca claimed the final top prize in the Idaho Lottery’s holiday-themed Scratch GameTM Snow Me the Money on Wednesday afternoon.
On Sunday evening, Fonseca stopped at her local Maverik to play a few Idaho Lottery Scratch tickets. “I asked the clerk for a Snow Me the Money ticket. I started to scratch it, saw the snowflake (the winning symbol), and then BOOM! I saw a lot of zeroes!” described Fonseca, a college student at Idaho State University in Pocatello. “The most I’d ever won before was $10. This is way bigger than that!”
Unconvinced she’d won such a large prize Fonseca used her smart phone and the Idaho Lottery check-a-ticket app to confirm her win. The message instructed her to contact the Idaho Lottery offices about her winning ticket. Three days later, she made the journey from Aberdeen to Boise to collect her prize.
Fonseca plans to share her winnings with her brother, Augustine, a student attending the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls. Both are planning to use the winnings to pay for their college tuition.
For their part in selling the winning ticket, Maverik receives a bonus from the Idaho Lottery of $5,000.
