Iowa Lottery Winner Uses Favorite Color For Luck

There are all kinds of superstitions people will use while playing the lottery. If it's a giant Powerball, you hear about people using their birthdays, kid's birthdays, anniversaries,  or favorite numbers to bring them luck. I've bought scratch-offs that involve some of my favorite sports teams or if they have to do with a state I've visited, all in hopes of winning a bunch of money.

Sadly, none of these superstitions have amounted to me winning big. This woman from Clinton, Iowa, used her favorite color to help her pull a winning ticket.

Florence Hurla won $10,000 in the Iowa Lottery game, "$100,000 Mega Crossword." Now, $10,000 is one of the smaller lottery wins we've ever reported on but hey, I don't believe I know anyone who would turn down a free $10,000. This story is less about the prize amount and more about why Florence decided to buy two of these Mega Crossword tickets.

As Florence was stopping to pick up a pizza at Casey's gas station, located at Camanche Ave, in Clinton, Iowa, she spotted a couple of bright red tickets in the store's lottery dispenser. Something as simple as her favorite color led her to grab a couple of tickets. How awesome is that? She had no other reasoning, no other justification other than, "these are my favorite color, why not." It turns out, it wasn't just her favorite color that involves these tickets. Her favorite number makes an appearance as well!

She told the Iowa Lottery,

I thought, 'Oh, I'll get two of those: Red's my favorite color. Then they ended up giving me (ticket) Nos. 3 and No. 4, and four is my favorite number. I had to look it over a hundred times. I finally checked it with my phone and it said $10,000. I couldn't believe it!

I'm not sure if it's because I've never won a really big amount of money before but I love hearing these really simple reasons or superstitions that lead people to buy lottery tickets and then finding out they've won. These tiny justifications, no matter the amount, make every lottery story unique.

After the big win, Florence had a little upgrade from her pizza dinner and took her daughter out for a steak. She hasn't quite decided what she's going to do with the winnings. She stopped to pick up her $10,000 check at the Cedar Rapids regional office last Friday.

According to Iowa Lottery, "the $100,000 Mega Crossword game is a $10 scratch game that features overall odds of 1 in 3.30, 38 top prizes of $100,000 and 76 prizes of $10,000."

Congratulations Florence! I'm guessing the color red and the number 4 will continue to be her favorites for quite some time.