Bargers win Mix & Match

Greencastle native Lonny Barger is the first player to win a $200,000 top prize playing Mix & Match - the Hoosier Lottery's newest draw game.

Barger matched all five winning numbers (2-27-33-39-47) on a single line for the June 9 Mix & Match drawing. Barger, accompanied by his wife Cathy, claimed the prize Monday at Hoosier Lottery Headquarters in Indianapolis.

"This is like a dream, it just doesn't seem real," Lonny Barger said. "It's been a nerve-wrecking experience spending these past few days waiting to claim our prize."

Barger purchased his winning Quick Pick ticket last Friday at Kroger Supermarket 961 at 821 Indianapolis Rd. The DePauw University employee found out he won on his lunch break while working overtime last Saturday.

"I had my ticket checked at the local McClure Gas Station and the clerk said I needed to take my ticket to the Lottery office to claim my prize," Barger said. "I knew right then I had at least won $5,000, but it wasn't until I got home that night that I realized I won $200,000!"

Barger actually won $200,050 to be exact -- $200,000 for matching all five numbers on a single line and $50 more for matching six total numbers on all three lines combined.

The Barger's are not positive what their going to do with their winnings because their "heads have been spinning" ever since Saturday night. Barger did say he would like to pay off the mortgage on his house and buy his wife Cathy a new car.

In all, 17,680 players won $291,088 in prizes last Friday evening playing Mix & Match. Over the past two weeks, Mix & Match has lived up to its slogan of offering "more ways to win; more chances to win; and more winners." Overall, 90,034 Mix & Match players have won $708,720 in prizes through the first five drawings.

"The Hoosier Lottery introduced Mix & Match because we wanted to offer a unique draw game that gave our players more chances to win," said Hoosier Lottery Executive Director Esther Schneider. "Ninety thousand winners in two weeks reaffirms that Mix & Match is producing the results we expected."

For those who have not yet heard, Mix & Match is the new draw game from the Hoosier Lottery. For $2, Mix & Match players can select their first line of up to five numbers from 1 to 50 or choose a Quick Pick. Players then automatically receive two additional Quick Pick lines generated by the lottery terminal, for a total of 15 numbers. Each ticket offers four different ways to win - one chance to win per line, and a fourth chance to win by combining numbers on all three lines. Combined play prizes range from a free ticket for matching just 3 of 15 numbers to $5,000 for matching eight or more numbers combined on all three lines. For single line play, players can win one of three prizes, including the $200,000 top prize for matching all five numbers on any single line.

Mix & Match drawings take place every Tuesday and Friday evening at approximately 10:49 p.m. and all tickets for Mix & Match must be purchased by 10:39 p.m. on the night of the drawing. Draw results may be found soon after each drawing at hoosier lottery.com, at any Hoosier Lottery retailer, or by calling the Hoosier Lottery's toll-free Customer Service Hotline at 1-800-95LOTTO. Most newspaper publications print Mix & Match results on the morning after the drawing.

More information about Mix & Match, including a multi-media how-to-play demonstration and an online game simulator, is available at hoosierlottery.com.

Guided by benchmarks of integrity and profitability, the Hoosier Lottery has returned $2.9 billion to the state of Indiana since 1989 to lower drivers' license plate costs, supplement local firefighters' and police officers' pensions, supplement the Teachers' Retirement Fund and much more.

The Hoosier Lottery wants to remind all players to play responsibly. The Lottery encourages anyone who thinks they may have a gambling problem or believes a friend or family member may have a gambling problem to call the Gambling Addictions Hotline toll free at 1-800-994-8448.