Nashua woman wins $10,000 lottery prize

To The Press

A Nashua woman looking to unwind before bed scratched a lottery ticket and uncovered a $10,000 prize.

“I don’t scratch when everybody’s awake. It’s my me-time, special treat,” Candice Haugh said with a laugh on Wednesday as she claimed her prize at the lottery’s Mason City regional office.

Haugh, 44, of Nashua, won the 13th prize of $10,000 in the Iowa Lottery’s “$100,000 Mega Crossword” scratch game. She bought her lucky ticket at Kwik Star in Nashua.

“My mom’s always done scratch tickets and she always likes the Bingo and Crosswords, so when I first started getting scratch tickets, it was always Bingo and Crossword ones because you can sit for a minute. It takes a while. It’s just, you know, more fun,” Haugh said.

“I got a $10 (ticket) this time, which normally, I only get the $3 ones. I was like, ‘I’m going to splurge on myself!’”

She said her big win came at a great time, as she and her fiancé just purchased a new home. They plan to put the winnings toward some new furniture and home improvements.

The $100,000 Mega Crossword game is a $10 scratch game that features 46 top prizes of $100,000, 92 prizes of $10,000 and overall odds of 1 in 3.29. For more information about this game, and the number of prizes still available, visit ialottery.com.

Since the lottery’s start in 1985, its players have won more than $5.5 billion in prizes while the lottery has raised more than $2.3 billion for state programs.

Lottery proceeds support Iowa veterans and their families through the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund. They help the families of Iowa peace officers, firefighters and corrections employees who die in the line of duty. And they provide help for a variety of projects through the state general fund.