As payday tradition, Kentucky woman bought a lottery ticket — this time she hit it big

A Western Kentucky woman recently received a life-changing surprise when a regular lottery purchase turned into a six-figure prize.

Kellee Reed of Drakesboro stopped at a convenience store to purchase a lottery scratch-off ticket, just as she always does after receiving her paycheck. This time, the odds were in her favor as she scratched the $10 Cash Blowout! ticket back at her home.

“I saw ‘two times’ and I was like, ‘Oh, I got $25,’” Reed told lottery officials. “I saw another ‘two times’ and a ‘five times’ and I kept on scratching. ‘No way, I got $250,000! This isn’t real.’”

Reed quickly broke the news to her parents, who wanted to see the ticket to check its legitimacy.

“My mom started doing the math with me,” Reed said. “She told me, ‘You got lucky.’”

After Reed visited the Kentucky Lottery’s headquarters Sept. 9, she left with a check for about $180,000 after taxes. Reed, a restaurant manager, plans to put the winnings into her savings for now.

Eagles VII along North Prine Avenue in Drakesboro will earn a $2,500 bonus for selling the winning ticket, according to lottery officials.

The Cash Blowout! scratch-off game tasks players with matching 15 game numbers to any of the five winning numbers on each ticket. The instant-win game offers prizes starting at $10, with additional bonuses and multipliers available through chance.

According to the Kentucky Lottery’s game rules , only four tickets with a $250,000 prize are expected in each batch of roughly 2.04 million ordered. The actual number of winners, the actual prize fund, the actual percentage payout and the actual odds of winning may vary.

Reed’s win is one of several notable prizes to come out of Kentucky Lottery scratch-off tickets in recent weeks. A first-time purchase in Northern Kentucky won a preschool teacher more than $178,000 , while an anonymous player recently cashed in with a $50,000 prize after buying a ticket on a whim .

Services are available in Kentucky for those who struggle with gambling .

If you or someone you know has a problem with gambling, help is available by calling 1-800-522-4700.

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