La Porte City Woman Snags Huge Lotto Prize

One woman in La Porte City has a few extra thousand dollars in her bank account now after playing the Iowa lottery.

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I never have had the best luck with playing the lottery or using scratch tickets. Everyone else seems to have all of the luck! The past year and a half have been a good one for Cedar Valley residents who play the lottery.

2021 was already a big year for Iowa lottery winners when one Waterloo woman won $100,000. Not even a full week later, yet another woman in Waterloo took home the big cash prize of $30,000.

By the end of April, a third Waterloo woman had claimed a $20,000 payout. In total, $150,000 went directly into the pockets of several Cedar Valley residents. Another Waterloo man sweetened up the pot by winning another $100,000 in April of 2021.

A different woman in LaPorte City won big with the Iowa Lottery at the beginning of the year. Ann Haraldson got very lucky when she played the state lottery scratch game "Bonus Crossword" and won $30,000. This winning ticket that she bought came from the Kwik tar on 841 South Street in Jesup.

Then Karla and Keith Elenz won big with the Powerball.

The Elenz's ticket was the only $2 million winner in the entire country, according to officials. It was only one number off from getting a cut of that major $26.8 million jackpot. The first five numbers matched the numbers drawn, winning a nice $1 million.

Later that month, Salih Sinanovic of Waterloo won the second top prize by playing a scratch lottery ticket. For frequent lottery players, he played the Iowa Lottery's "Supreme" scratch game.

Sinanovic purchased this winning ticket at Hometown Foods located at 1010 East Mitchell Avenue in Waterloo.

It's been a few months since we last heard of any major winners in the Cedar Valley, but one La Porte City woman put that months-long streak to an end.

Janet Thiele of La Porte City went home a bit richer earlier this month. The woman won $100,000 by playing the Iowa Lottery's "Power 10x" scratch game. She picked up her winning ticket at Thriftway, 304 Fourth St. in La Porte City.

Congratulations to Janet for this major win!

The scratch game she played, Power 10x, features eight prizes of $100,000. The overall odds of winning the game are 1 in 2.96, according to an Iowa lottery press release.