From Nap to Fortune, This Arkansas Man Was Woken Up by $250K Lottery Win

What would you do with a quarter of a million dollars?  A Clark County man has the chance to spend a nice win once he catches his breath after he learned he had won $250,000 in an Arkansas Scholarship Lottery second-chance drawing.

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M. Irby won the big prize in the Oct. 8 Play It Again drawing after entering a nonwinning $20 200X the Cash scratch-off ticket. He claimed his prize at the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery Claim Center in Little Rock that very same day.

Irby said in an Arkansas Scholarship Lottery press release,

It really still hasn’t sunk in yet. You dream of it happening, but it’s one of those things that’s bigger than life.

 

A Phone Call He Won't Forget

Irby was at home, dozing off in front of the TV, when a phone call woke him up. Expecting someone else, he answered the phone and was surprised to hear an Arkansas Scholarship Lottery representative telling him he had won $250,000.

Like many lottery winners, his first reaction was disbelief. He thought it was a scam or a prank.

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Irby's been playing the lottery for a long time and he regularly enters his nonwinning scratch-off tickets into The Club, which is an online platform where Arkansas Scholarship Lottery players can enter second-chance drawings and other special promotions.

I love this idea of entering a lottery with the old tickets that gave you nothing. It's like recycling only better.

Before this win, his biggest lottery prize was $2,500, so it's easy to understand why the news caught him off guard.

He headed straight to the lottery's Claim Center to make sure the win was real before telling anyone else the good news.

What Will He Do With the Money?

As for what he'll do with his $250,000 prize, Irby hasn't made any plans just yet.

He said,

I’ve thought about it before, but when it happens, you suddenly don’t know.

It must be a bit daunting to win that kind of money; winners probably start second-guessing how you want to spend it. Ugh!

Arkansas lottery players who hold nonwinning scratch-off tickets have another opportunity to win through the Play It Again second-chance drawings.

The next drawing is scheduled for Feb. 4, 2027, with a $400,000 prize up for grabs.