News writer; Opinion columnist
Pennsylvania scratch-off players closed the year on a hot streak. The state lottery paid out over $195 million on more than 6,400 winning tickets in December. While two big winners combined for a million-dollar payout, most players pocketed $1,000 or less.
But whether their prize money helped pay for a Christmas vacation or just a Christmas tree, everyone's happy to come up with a winner.
Big winners
It was a very merry Christmas for two big winners who each took home $500,000 jackpots.
Amanda B of Allegheny, PA, stuffed her stocking with half a million dollars after hitting the big prize playing $500,000 Crossword Blowout. To win the jackpot, Amanda had to match ten words in her second crossword grid to her 21 letters.
Each game contains two grids for players to match, but only the second one is worth up to $500,000.
Tickets to play the game cost $10, and prize amounts range from $10 to $500,000. The game includes ten total grand prizes, and there are still nine available to claim.
Gregory G's family in York also probably found more presents under the tree than they expected after he cashed a holiday-themed $500,000 Merry Mint scratch-off card for the top prize.
You won't need a dictionary to know if you're a Merry Mint winner. All you have to do is match your fifteen numbers to any of the six winning numbers and collect the corresponding prize.
If the same prize appears twice, you can only collect it once, but if you uncover a peppermint twist in the bonus area, you can double your win.
Tickets cost $10 to play, prizes range from $10 to $500,000, and there are still five unclaimed jackpots.
Second best
$1 Million Money Tree features a top prize of (did you guess?) $1,000,000, but the three players who won $100,000 in December are probably pretty satisfied with their haul.
Players need to match their fifteen numbers to the seven winning numbers to win. Uncover a star symbol, and you instantly win the associated prize. Uncovering the phrase “WIN ALL” means winning every prize in your game.
$1 Million Money Tree was one of the best-performing scratch-offs for the month, with over 400 players winning at least $1,000 from the game.
You can take your shot at the top prize for $20; three $1 million prizes are still waiting to be collected.
Top prize
While there were plenty of big winners in December, many great outstanding prizes are still waiting to be found, including several $5 million jackpots on the games Monopoly Own It All, Five Million Fabulous Fortune, and $5 Million Moneymaker.
All three of those games cost $50 to play.
Giving back
All proceeds collected by the Pennsylvania State Lottery are directed to programs to benefit senior citizens. The lottery has distributed more than $35.1 billion to support property tax and rent rebates, transportation, medical assistance, and other local services for seniors, including meal programs.
