Waterloo woman wins second big lottery prize In three years
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CLIVE — A Waterloo woman has won a large lottery prize for the second time in three years.
“It is very exciting,” Sarah Baxter told officials on Monday as she claimed her “Extreme Green Progressive” InstaPlay jackpot prize of $182,162 at the lottery’s Cedar Rapids regional office. “It feels good to get out of debt. That is my biggest thing.”
The Extreme Green Progressive jackpot starts at $20,000 and increases with each ticket sold statewide until it is won. Baxter, 39, bought her winning ticket at Road Ranger, 100 Plaza Drive, Elk Run Heights.
“I decided that I just wanted to get a ticket, so I stopped for gas and that’s what I did,” said Baxter, who also won a $100,000 Powerball prize in January 2020. “I decided to get one: Whatever I looked at that looks good, I’d just go for it.”
Baxter didn’t check her ticket until she returned home that night. She verified her big win by scanning it with the Iowa Lottery mobile app.
She said that some family members and friends have questioned her good luck.
“They’re like, ‘How do you do that?’” Baxter said. “I don’t know what to say. It’s just as simple as I buy tickets.”
With her first big lottery win, Baxter shaved 20 years off of her mortgage. With her second set of winnings, she plans to pay it off completely.
“I’m going to pay off my mortgage and one of my vehicles so I’m excited about that,” she said.
The InstaPlay product combines features from instant-scratch and lotto games. InstaPlay tickets are called "scratchless" because they have no security coating that needs to be removed to determine the prize won. And rather than having supplies of tickets printed in advance like those in traditional scratch and pull-tab games, InstaPlay tickets are printed on demand from the lottery terminal.
