Two Hurley residents claimed $20,000 and $16,000 prizes from the New Mexico Lottery on Monday.
Daniel R. Medina and his girlfriend Tammie Cisneros came to lottery headquarters in Albuquerque to claim a $20,000 prize from the “$250,000 Cash Xcitement” Scratcher game priced at $20. Good fortune has found the 28-year-old customer service representative twice in the last two months. In August, Medina claimed a $25,000 prize from a $3 “Monopoly®” Scratcher game.
“Everybody calls us the ‘lucky lovers,’” he said, smiling at Cisneros. “We’re the luckiest people in Silver City.”
Medina, who “yowled” after winning his most recent Scratcher prize, plans to make a large payment against his home loan and take Cisneros on a vacation to the Bahamas.
He purchased both winning Scratcher tickets at Snappy Mart No. 12 located on E. Highway 180 in Bayard. This lottery retailer has sold eight other large prize-winning tickets ranging between $1,000 and $200,000.
Electrical instruments technician Ronald L. Gavaldon came to lottery headquarters in Albuquerque expecting to claim a $4,000 prize. Instead, his winning $2 Chile Twist ticket was worth $16,000. Despite winning a much larger prize, Gavaldon’s plans remain the same.
“I try to be thrifty,” he said. “I’m going to invest it.
Rather than call his wife to tell her they had won $16,000, Gavaldon decided a little prank would make delivering the good news even more exciting.
“I’m going to go home and first tell her that the ticket wasn’t worth $4,000 after all,” he said, grinning from ear to ear.
The 38-year-old Hurley resident bought his winning ticket at Food Basket No. 102 at 1220 N. Hudson in Silver City.
Lottery Beneficiaries in Grant County County
All net revenues from the sale of lottery games benefit the Legislative Lottery Scholarship program, which provides tuition assistance for New Mexico residents attending the state’s public colleges and universities.
Since its inception in 1996, the lottery has raised more than $331 million for public education in
New Mexico. More than 48,500 students have received Legislative Lottery Scholarships in the last decade. As of the Spring 2007 semester, 880 high school graduates from Grant County have received nearly $3.5 million in Legislative Lottery Scholarships to attend college. More than 340 of those students have graduated from college.
Information on Legislative Lottery Scholarships is available at
www.nmlottery.com
