Conesville,Iowa has a $500K lotto winner

Conesville,Iowa has a $500K lotto winner

DES MOINES, Iowa - An eastern Iowa man won a $500,000 prize and 50 other lottery players won $1,000 prizes Friday in the final drawing of an instant-scratch game from the Kansas and Iowa lotteries that was the first of its kind in the nation. The game's success has led the lotteries to make plans for further joint scratch games.
Stephen Zabel of Conesville, Iowa, was selected as the top-prize winner of $500,000 in the Midwest Millions drawing
conducted Friday in downtown Des Moines by Dawn Carlson, president of the Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Stores of Iowa, and lottery officials. Fifty winners of $1,000 prizes also were selected in the drawing.
Iowa Lottery officials reached Zabel Friday at Tyson Fresh Meats in Columbus Junction,
where he works as a supply receiver. Zabel, 55, was floored by the news.

Oh, geez. You're kidding me! he said when told that he had won the $500,000 prize. I'm shaking.
The Kansas and Iowa lotteries became the first in the United States to offer a joint
scratch game when Midwest Millions began sales in September. Players in both states bought
tickets and competed for prizes as part of an effort to test the Powerball concept that has proven so successful in lotto games. Multiple lotteries have joined together in lotto games such as Powerball to offer bigger prizes and more chances to win than they would have been able to achieve on their own.
Kansas Lottery Executive Director Ed Van Petten found inspiration for Midwest Millions
in the success that Canadian lotteries had achieved by joining together to offer scratch games with millions of dollars in prizes. The provincial lotteries in Canada have successfully offered joint instant-scratch games since 1976. As he initially considered the idea in mid-2006, Van Petten contacted officials at the Iowa Lottery, who also saw merit in the project, and the two began the work of bringing a game to market.
Van Petten and Iowa Lottery Acting CEO Ken Brickman. Midwest Millions has joined the list
of multi-jurisdictional games that have achieved
success by offering players more prizes and larger top prizes through the pooling of resources,
Van Petten said. Brickman added,