Florissant Woman Wins Cool Quarter Million In Time For Christmas

FLORISSANT, MO — Christmas came early this year for one local woman. Deborah Stewart bought a winning lottery ticket at the QuikTrip on Lindbergh Blvd in Florissant and claimed her prize money — $250,000 — Oct. 26. She was the first to claim a top prize in the "Holiday Wishes" scratch-off game, according to the Missouri Lottery.

Holiday Wishes tickets went on sale Oct. 16 and cost $10. Officials said more than $9.3 million in prizes remain, including another quarter-million dollar top prize, four $20,000 prizes and 16 $10,000 prizes. The game will run through Jan. 9.

The Associated Press also reported a man from Liberty, Mo., Brian Stayton, claimed a $4 million scratch-off prize last week.

Founded in 1984, when more than 70 percent of Missouri voters approved it at the ballot box, the Missouri Lottery is a charter member of the Multi-State Lottery Association and currently the sixth-largest source of state income. "More than 95 cents of every dollar spent on the Lottery benefits Missouri," a spokesman for the program said. "Since sales started in 1986, the Missouri Lottery has generated more than $5.8 billion for the state and public education, and annual lottery proceeds make up approximately 4 percent of the state's funding for public education."

Critics have said 4 percent is much too low for a program whose slogan is "playing it forward."

"We aren't being honest with Missourians when we make them believe the lottery funds education," Gov. Jay Nixon said in 2014, according to the Joplin Globe. "It does not."

Others have likened the lottery to a regressive tax on frequent players, who tend to be poor and less well-educated. Jonah Lehrer wrote for Wired Magazine in 2011, "On average, households that make less than $12,400 a year spend 5 percent of their income on lotteries—a source of hope for just a few bucks a throw."