Nancy Hardin of Arnold won a $99,655 Club Keno 8-spot progressive jackpot last month at the Meramec Arnold Elks Lodge in Imperial, where she and her family were playing the Missouri Lottery game.
“I’d been picking my own numbers and playing Multiplier,” Hardin explained. “Eventually, I went to the bar and said, ‘Give me a Quick Pick 8-Spot with Multiplier.’”
After getting the ticket and returning to her table, Hardin’s group watched the Club Keno monitor as the numbers were drawn.
“The first game played and the numbers flashed up. I said, ‘I think I have seven numbers.’ I got really excited, because that would have been almost $3,000.”
The eighth number on her ticket was a 13, which she did not notice right away.
“I said, ‘I’m only one number away! I wish I would have had that 13,’” Hardin recalled. “My husband said, ‘I think 13 was up there, Nancy.’"
Her husband also noticed that the 8-spot progressive jackpot had reset, meaning someone, somewhere had hit it.
“So I grabbed my cell phone to use the app and go back and see the numbers again,” she said. “It was the first game on the ticket and as soon as I saw that ‘13’ on my phone, I jumped straight up in the air and said, ‘I won $59,000!’”
Amid the excitement, Hardin’s husband and brother reminded her that she had played the Multiplier feature, which increased her base prize.
“So I went from thinking that I won $3,000, to $59,000 to $99,000,” she said with a laugh.
Hardin said the feeling of winning that much money was indescribable.
“There’s not a word that describes it,” she added. “It was beyond shock.”
In the most recent fiscal year, players in Jefferson County took home more than $30.7 million in Missouri Lottery prizes. Retailers received over $3.1 million in commissions and bonuses, and an additional $7.8 million went to educational programs in the county.