A soda craving just helped an Iowa man nab a lottery of $100,000 a year for life. Doug Dearborn, 61, has made history by winning one of the biggest lotteries in Iowa. Dearborn won the second prize after buying a lottery ticket at the Sac City store. He wished to buy a soda at the store and bought a Millionaire for Life ticket with four quick-pick plays.

Millionaire For Life is a relatively new lottery game started in February 2026. The game is run by the Multi-State Lottery Association, which, as the name suggests, offers payouts that last a lifetime rather than a one-time payment. According to IA Lottery, Dearborn’s win marks the first Match-5 prize won nationwide since the game’s start in February.

“His lucky ticket matched all five white balls in Friday’s drawing to win at the game’s second prize level of $100,000 a year for life,” Iowa Lottery explained. “It was the first Match-5 prize won nationwide since the game’s start in February.”

Dearborn’s winning number was 14-16-21-43-51. He missed the first prize, called “Millionaire Ball,” that would have yielded him an even higher prize.

After buying the ticket at a store, Dearborn stopped at another retail store to check it, where he discovered he had won the lottery. Dearborn was using the store’s self-checker at the time and could not believe that he had won the lottery. He scanned it again to make sure what he was seeing was real and even asked the store employee to verify the numbers. He then verified the numbers a third time, after which he erupted into a cheer, as Dearborn himself explained. 

“I looked around and went, ‘WOOO!’” Dearborn said. “I think the whole store heard me. I’d say it was a dead giveaway I won something.” Since then, the 61-year-old has been flooded with messages congratulating him. “All the texts I got, all the phone calls I got, all the messages I got — I can’t return them all,” Doug Dearborn said with a laugh Tuesday afternoon as he received the prize money at the Millionaire For Life main office in Clive.

That said, despite winning the lottery called Millionaire For Life, Dearborn didn’t choose the $100,000 a year for life. He instead chose to receive the lump-sum option of $2.2 million. The game’s top prize is $1 million per year for life. However, Dearborn won the second prize, which reduced his prize by a significant amount. In lottery prizes that promise winners a “for life” amount, recipients usually have the option to take a lump-sum payment as well. This gives the winner a large upfront amount, but usually less than what the winner could receive over time through lifetime payments.