Wins Top Prize on Diamonds & 7’s Scratch-Off
Cool, calm, collected, Rita Balazek’s outward demeanor belied her true feelings. “I am not calm, believe me,” said Rita. “I have cried, cried and cried some more.” Rita was at work yesterday and with a few minutes to kill, decided to play a few Lottery games. She had won $250 last week playing Pick 3 and then another $60 on a couple of scratch-offs. She thought that she would reinvest a bit of her prize money and purchased a few more instant tickets, one of which was Diamonds & 7’s.
“I was playing and not hitting and told one of my employees to rub me for good luck,” said the 49-year-old. When she began revealing the numbers on her Diamonds & 7’s, she first thought that she’d won $100. “Then I thought it was $1,000 and then….” When she realized that she was $100,000 richer, she nearly died. “My employees thought that I was having a heart attack.”
The mother-of-two didn’t fully grasp her good fortune until claiming her win at Lottery Headquarters. “I kept thinking, this isn’t real.” Rita intends to pay off bills with her Lottery winnings and may take a mini-vacation with her two sons who live out of state. The winning ticket was purchased at River Hill Sunoco, located at 5015 Signal Bell Ln. in Clarksville.