Partner's generosity returns larger prize than before
By Kate Northrop
NEWTON FALLS, Ohio — An Ohio woman won a $300,000 prize in the lottery after her husband's own win got the ball rolling on their combined luck.
One husband's lottery win somersaulted into a generous gesture for his wife, leading to her $300,000 win right after.
Gretchen Spahlinger's luck began when her husband received several scratch-off tickets for his birthday. Luckily for him, he won $150 and decided to cash in on the winners.
While he was at Newton Falls Convenient Mart on South Milton Boulevard in Newton Falls collecting his winnings, he decided to reinvest the winnings in some scratch-off tickets for his wife.
He wanted to get the $10 "$500,000 Cashword" ticket since it was her favorite instant game, but the retailer was sold out of it. Instead, he purchased four $5 "Special Edition Cashword" tickets and brought them home.
Spahlinger was delighted to play the tickets while at an outing with her friends later that evening, even more so when she realized that one of them was a winner. However, it was a prize amount that seemed too good to be true.
She downloaded the Ohio Lottery's mobile app to scan the ticket and double check what she was seeing, and it was real: the ten completed words on her crossword scratch-off ticket won her the game's $300,000 top prize.
"Of course he didn't answer," Spahlinger quipped when she tried calling her husband to share the news right away, so she held onto the ticket for the rest of the night and resolved to tell him when she got back.
The prize was worth way more than the $50 he originally believed it to be.
They visited the Lottery to claim the prize together and received a total of $219,750 after combined state and federal taxes of 26.75%.
With the winnings, they plan on paying off their house and vehicle and will put the remainder into savings for a "rainy day." Winning is something that always crosses her mind, but she never expected the prize to amount to anything like this, Spahlinger told Lottery officials.
Spahlinger won the very first top prize of $300,000 out of six available in the $5 "Special Edition Cashword" scratch-off game, leaving five more to claim. There are also seven out of ten second-tier prizes of $5,000 and 43 out of 50 third-tier prizes of $1,000 remaining.
The overall odds of winning any prize in the game, which launched in October 2025, are 1 in 4.11.
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This story really made the morning much brighter!
They'll find the best 'treasure' is no more house note! Smart move!
Strange story. He spent 20.00 of his 150.00 for 4 5.00 Cash Words for her and I will go out on a limb here and say he probably was familiar with the game and it's prize structure. She is happy as a clam to get the 4 tickets and scratched them in front of her friends when they were out doing something else that I guess wasn't too exciting. She downloaded the app and was fairly confident she won 300k. She tried calling him to no avail so instead of going home she stayed with her friends which was noble. She gets home shows him the ticket and he says it is only worth 50.00. That part throws me. I would think she would say what are talking about. I got all the words. But no, she is as surprised as he is the next day at lottery headquarters or she just didn't want to start a big thing with him.
What is the male counterpart to 'Happy Wife, happy life?' (In regards to your last sentence).
Not sure. They look like the type that get along with each other though which is a good thing.
Congrats to the lucky couple, enjoy and have lots of fun.