Arkansas man claims $250K lottery prize from non-winning ticket

BENTON, Ark. — An Arkansas man is now $250,000 richer after claiming his lottery ticket prize from the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery Claim Center!

Jeremy Holleman, a Benton resident, turned a non-winning scratch-off game into the $250,000 prize. He won the prize as part of the Play It Again Second-Chance drawing on May 22. 

“I was shaking. I didn’t believe it was real … now, I’m just happy,” he said. 

Holleman said that he’s a monthly lottery player and entered the May 22 drawing with a non-winning $10 triple cash payout instant ticket. 

After previously entering his non-winning ticket into a drawing, Holleman said that he hesitated to believe the news after receiving both an email and call stating that he had won the $250,000. 

“That has to be a scam,” he said. 

The hesitation continued until a clerk at his local lottery retailer mentioned the drawing — that’s when Holleman truly began to suspect he really had won the $250,000 prize. 

Shortly after that, Holleman began receiving messages from his friends on Facebook telling him that he had won the prize. 

As part of one last check, Holleman finally checked online. It’s there where he saw he was listed as the winner. 

Holleman said that he plans to buy a new truck with his prize. He also said he intends to continue playing lottery games.

Another player won a $50,000 prize in the June 9 Powerball drawing, with the winning ticket being sold at PDQ North in Russellville. 

The winning numbers were 30, 33, 40, 43 and 52, and the Powerball number was 25. The Power Play multiplier was 4. The winner was one of only five players nationwide to win a prize in this tier.

The Arkansas ticket is currently still unclaimed, but the winner has 180 days to claim the prize.