A couple of people who bought Mega Millions tickets in Mason City and Sioux City will be much wealthier soon. A ticket for last night’s drawing, sold at Mills Fleet Farm in Mason City, is worth $1 million. Lottery spokeswoman Kim Vore says the ticket holder took advantage of a new rule that upped the prize for matching five white balls from $250,000 to $1 million.
“Earlier this month, we made a change to the Mega-plier option, which now states that the ‘match five prize’ will always be one-million dollars. So, when you buy a Mega Millions ticket, as long as you bought the Mega-plier for an additional dollar and you match all five white balls but miss the Mega Ball, you win a million dollars,” Vore said.
Another ticket in Sioux City was among the five sold nationwide that matched the first five white balls but missed the Mega Ball for at least a $250,000 prize. The Iowa Lottery has already written several big checks this year.
Vore says the ticket in Mason City is the 8th million dollar winning ticket sold in Iowa this year. That’s double the number of million dollar prizes awarded in the state over the previous two years.
By Bob Fisher, KGLO, Mason City
