Kansas Lottery fans have been playing scratch games for a long time, since the Lottery was first established, in fact! The first instant game, 'Up and Away' began in 1987 and raised $7 million in the first week of sales alone.
The Kansas Lottery also offers a selection of pull-tab games, which are almost the same as scratchers, except instead of scratching the foil, players remove a perforated piece of card to reveal prizes. To keep things simple, we've lumped big scratch game and pull-tab game winners together.
The Kansas Lottery occasionally publishes press-releases when instant game prizes are won. Here's a few of the most recent big winners in the Sunflower State who were happy for their details to be published:
Due to Kansas' lottery anonymity laws, it's trickier to find details on the winners of big scratcher prizes and their stories. Here are a handful, nonetheless!
| Winner | Scratch-Off Game | Prize Amount | Win Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Erika Timmons (Olathe) | ($20) Cash Blast | $10,000 | 01/30/2026 |
| John Ohmie (Wichita) | ($30) Fiery Hot 7's | $10,000 | 12/11/2025 |
| Zachary Soudeis (Gardner) | ($5) Rivalry Riches | $50,000 | 09/12/2025 |
| Robert Swanson (Leavenworth) | ($20) Cash Windfall | $150,000 | 03/28/2025 |
| Chad & Kirsten Pomerenke (Osage) | ($5) Rivalry Riches | $50,000 | 02/25/2025 |
In September 2025, Zachary Soudeis won the top prize of $50,000 on the football-themed Rivalry Riches scratch ticket – he'd won some smaller prizes beforehand playing pull-tab instant games, and decided to put his winnings towards a different game he'd not tried before. In the end, he didn't scratch his tickets until much later. Soudeis planned to invest most of the money but admitted "you have to celebrate a little bit".
March 2025 - We've put this lucky couple's location as 'Leavenworth', but it's more complicated than that – besides them both being from Germany originally, they'd only been in the state for 6 months, staying at a relative's place in Leavenworth while looking for a small town to settle down in. They'd moved up from Florida after a hurricane had caused extensive damage to their home, so the win couldn't have come at a better time! The money was intended to go towards their new home, although a carve-out would be made to pay for a trip to Germany.
February 2025 – Mark Sullivan was at the store to grab a few items for a Super Bowl party he was hosting and decided that some scratch games would be fun for the guests. After spending $100 on $1 and $2 games, he treated himself to four $10 Kansas City Chiefs tickets for himself. He scratched them later on, and one of them revealed the $75,000 winning symbol. In the end, the game didn't go very well for the Chiefs, with guests to the party accusing Sullivan of using up all their luck!