2021-03-03 17:47:22.607

Keith Ellefson of Marshall has claimed a $100,000 prize on a Missouri Lottery “$7,000,000 Mega Money” Scratchers game. He purchased his winning ticket at J&K Liquor and Tobacco, 675 S. Odell Ave., in Marshall.

Ellefson scratched the ticket in the parking lot, but he didn’t immediately realize how much he’d won. Leaving the prizes unscratched at first, he saw that he had won 200 times something, but he didn’t yet know the amount.

“I scratched [it]off, but I didn’t reveal the prize amount,” he explained.

Ellefson took the ticket to another retail location, where he scanned it and saw that he had won $100,000. Stunned, Ellefson then scratched the prize amount and saw that he had won 200 times $500, or $100,000.

He later returned to the store he purchased the ticket from to let them know they had sold him a ticket worth so much.

“They were pretty shocked,” he recalled. “But so was I!”

“$7,000,000 Mega Money” is a $30 Scratchers game with more than $59.9 million in unclaimed prizes, including a top prize of $7 million and two more $100,000 prizes.

In the last fiscal year, players in Saline County won more than $4 million in Missouri Lottery prizes. Retailers in the county received more than $380,000 in commissions and bonuses, and an additional $542,000 went to educational programs in the county. For a detailed list of programs that benefitted, visit MOLottery.com.