The Idaho Lottery commemorated 100 years of rodeo in Idaho with the Snake River Stampede last summer when it introduced the western themed Scratch GameTM Rodeo Riches. And in the spirit of the American old west, the final top prize winning ticket of $50,000 was won by a real cowboy.
Cipriano Del Rio and his nephews breed and train real rodeo horses in Ogden, Utah. In early February, Del Rio and his wife were visiting Top Stop Chevron in Malad to play the Idaho Lottery when he purchased his winning ticket.
“A while back I played the game and matched a couple of cowboy hats, each were worth $20, so when we went to the store yesterday, I said we had to play that game again,” described Del Rio. “I bought two tickets. I had them check the one I thought I’d won on and the machine started going ‘Wooh! Wooh!’ So I asked ‘how much did I win?’”
And they said “It’s big!”
“How big?”
“Really big!”
“Really big?”
“Really, really big!”
“Wooh!!” he finally added.
The retired cowboy plans to take his wife on a couple of vacations with his prize winnings. And with a tip of his hat, and a western swagger, he promised to return one day to the Lottery Offices for the “big one” before driving away into a wintery western sunset.
