December 17, 2009

$147,000 Given Out to Instant Ticket Winners This Week

The cash is flowing and the tears are rolling in the Rhode Island Lottery Validations office.

A Cranston man started to cry as soon as Lottery officials confirmed that his Texas Hold ‘Em Instant Ticket was a $100,000 winner. He said he was on his way to his apprenticeship class when he stopped at Sam’s Food Store on Post Road in Warwick to cash in his $100 winner on that game and buy one more ticket. He said he started jumping up and down in the aisles after he scratched the winning ticket and one of his friends from class had come into the store just in time to see him celebrating.

Later that day a Portsmouth man claimed a $35,000 winning ticket from the 35th Anniversary Instant Game. He came in with his five-year-old daughter and said he planned on putting some of the money in the bank for her college education. Cumberland Farms at 1812 East Main Road in Portsmouth sold him the winning ticket.

Furthermore, a $12,000 In the Money Instant Ticket was claimed by a young woman from Smithfield who couldn’t stop smiling over her big win. She said she’ll use the money to pay bills and buy a new car. That ticket was purchased at Smithfield Gulf on Putnam Pike in Greenville.