Lottery winner gets her money's worth out of one ticket

By Kate Northrop

SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky woman who buys a specific type of scratch-off ticket to extend her lottery play time positively got her money's worth when she won a $150,000 top prize.

One Kentucky woman spent an hour scratching off a lottery ticket to piece together that she had won the game's top prize of $150,000.

Last week, Kentucky Lottery officials received a visit from Vicky Barnes and her husband, Jamie, who had brought forth a winning scratch-off ticket valued at a cool $150,000.

The ticket was from the $10 "King Crossword" instant game, which Vicky purchased at Bullitt County Supermarket on Clermont Road in Shepherdsville.

However, Vicky had waited an entire week after she bought it to sit down and scratch the ticket off on Tax Day at her kitchen counter.

"I scratched the first bonus off first, and it said, '$75,000,'" Vicky recalled. "I called him, [Jamie], at work immediately. I'm like, 'I've won like really big on the lottery.' While I was talking to him, I scratched off the second bonus. 'Holy crap, I just won another $60,000!'"

Naturally, it's hard to help verify your partner's scratch-off win mid-conversation over the phone without being able to look at it directly. Upon hearing the amounts she was rattling off, her husband wasn't sure whether she was reading the ticket correctly.

"Are you sure?" he repeatedly asked her.

Vicky then texted him a picture of the ticket to prove the win was real.

"I read the instructions and saw the max prize was one fifty [$150,000]," Jamie told the Lottery. "I texted her back and told her, 'I don't think you won one thirty-five. You're going to win one fifty or you've read it wrong and didn't win anything."

"I thought I had won $135,000," Vicky relayed. However, she figured out she hadn't even finished scratching the rest of the ticket. She continued and eventually uncovered 12 words — enough to win the game's $150,000 top prize.

"It took her an hour for her to scratch it off," Jamie said.

Vicky explained to Lottery staff that she prefers to buy the Crossword-style scratch-off tickets because she enjoys the extended play she gets from them.

"I feel like I'm getting my money's worth since it takes a while to scratch them off," she said.

When Jamie got home from work, he wanted to confirm with full certainty that Vicky's ticket was a winner.

"When I scanned it, and it said it [won a prize], I knew it was real," Jamie said.

"I was confident that ticket was a winner, but I'm still not sure it's totally hit me yet," Vicky added.

The couple visited Lottery headquarters in Louisville on April 21, 2025 and walked out of the building with a check for $108,000 after taxes that same day.

"It makes life easier," Jamie expressed.

With the winnings, the pair plans on buying a car and remodeling their home.

For selling the winning ticket, the retailer will receive a $1,500 bonus commission from the Lottery.

Vicky claimed the first of two available top prizes of $150,000 in the $10 "King Crossword" scratch-off game, which launched in February. There are also 11 out of 24 second-tier prizes of $1,500 remaining, as well as 23 third-tier prizes of $500.

The overall odds of winning any prize in the game are 1 in 2.62.

(Click to display full-size in gallery)Vicky Barnes and her husband, Jamie, claimed a winning Kentucky Lottery scratch-off ticket valued at a cool $150,000.