A Missouri Lottery player in St. Louis has claimed the first of five top prizes on a “$250,000 Crossword” Scratchers ticket.

The winner explained he had a small winning ticket to cash in when he stopped at Crownway Mart, 8501 Morganford Road in St. Louis, and bought what would turn out to be a $250,000 winning ticket.

“I had won $30, and I thought, ‘Cool! I’ll get a ticket, a pizza for dinner and put the rest in my pocket,’” he shared.

As he began playing the $10 ticket, he counted the words formed by his matching letters. The more words he completed in the puzzle, the higher his prize grew. However, he didn’t know just how much he had won until he asked family members look the ticket over.

“I thought I had nine words,” he said. “I sent a photo of the ticket to my parents and asked if they were seeing what I was seeing. My mom noticed I had missed a couple of letters on one of the words, and I actually had 10 words!”

So far, “$250,000 Crossword” players have won more than $3.8 million in prizes since the game was released in late April. There are over $27.8 million in prizes currently unclaimed, including four additional $250,000 prizes and eight $25,000 prizes.

During FY25 players in St. Louis County won more than $195.9 million in Missouri Lottery prizes, retailers received more than $18.8 million in commissions and bonuses, and more than $47.9 million in Lottery proceeds went to educational programs in the county.