Ida Lam says she doesn’t play the California Lottery’s Scratchers® games very often. In fact, she only started playing about a month ago when she first picked up a California Lottery Black Scratchers ticket. The reason she kept playing? That first ticket was worth $50.
Fast-forward to today, and Lam is now $250,000 richer for continuing to play the California Lottery Black Scratchers game. She hit the big prize over the weekend and came into the Lottery’s Sacramento District Office this morning to claim her winnings.
Lam purchased her winning ticket on Saturday at the 7-Eleven located at 500 Auburn Ravine Road in Auburn (Placer County). She said she took the ticket into the Chinese restaurant where she works and scratched it there. She said despite the public setting, she got plenty excited when she saw she had won $250,000, shouting “I just won big money!”
She said after she had calmed a bit she called her husband and her mom. She laughed when recounting her mom’s initial reaction: “Are you kidding???”
For now, Lam says her only plans are to use some of the money to pay off her house.