Fulton woman wins $25,000 in lottery game

Contributed photo: Teresa White and her husband David hold a $25,000 check from the Missouri Lottery she won on New Year's Day playing Keno at the Fulton Bowling Center.
Contributed photo: Teresa White and her husband David hold a $25,000 check from the Missouri Lottery she won on New Year's Day playing Keno at the Fulton Bowling Center.

Teresa White of Fulton started the new year with extra money after winning $25,000 in a Missouri Lottery Club Keno game she played on New Year's Day.

White won the big prize while playing at the Fulton Bowling Center.

She says she has been playing a random set of keno numbers for the last five years.

"I thought that I had just hit $145," White said. "But then my husband said "I think you matched more numbers than that.'

"We checked and it was nine numbers out of 10. I was in a daze. I couldn't believe it."

Her husband, Dave White, said every number except 25 popped up.

"Number 25 would have paid $300,000," he said.

During the evening at the bowling alley, the Fulton couple also was celebrating the news that their daughter and son-in-law have a grandson on the way.

"Everybody in the bowling alley expressed their congratulations to us," White said.

The Whites own White Moving & Storage in Fulton. Dave White said "this is a pretty good bonus for the beginning of the year."

Dave White was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Callaway County presiding commissioner in the August primary election last year.

The couple will celebrate its Missouri Lottery windfall by going to dinner at the Longhorn Steakhouse in Jefferson City and taking a trip in August to Las Vegas for their 32nd wedding anniversary.

"It's hard to believe," Teresa White said, "I never dreamed that I would win anything like this."

To play Club Keno, players can choose how many numbers (also called spots) they want to play from 1 to 10. Twenty numbers from a field of 1 to 80 are chosen in a computerized random Club Keno drawing every four minutes. The drawings are shown on television screens around the state where the Missouri Lottery game is played.

Since the Missouri Lottery began in 1986, it has contributed more than $3.8 billion to state and public education. Every year it generates more than $250 million for education programs, including A+ scholarships.