Nothing says love like giving your future spouse a winning $250,000 lottery ticket.That's what happened in Ballwin, Mo., where Robert Russell, 33, surprised his future wife, 30-year-old Tracie Rogers, with the "$250,000 Payout" scratcher, purchased at a QuikTrip in St. Louis.
"I thought it was a fake!" Rogers told the Missouri Lottery. "I was just shocked. You always hear about people winning big money on the Lottery, but you never meet anybody."
The Missouri Lottery says the couple plan to use their winnings to pay off a house. Not a bad way to start off a marriage, especially since around 14 million Americans, or 19 percent of all homeowners, owe more than $100,000 on their mortgages.
The state lottery made $968.5m in the 2009 sales year. Of each dollar spent, 63.7 cents goes to players.
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