By Polly Keary, Editor
Steve Jensen of Monroe is not an artist. He doesn't know much about astronomy, and he isn't a huge Lotto player.
Nevertheless, of 151 entries in the Washington Lottery's Design A Scratch Ticket Contest, held in honor of Lotto's 30th Anniversary, Jensen's Mars-themed ticket design won first place by popular vote.
So next year, his ticket will appear on $2 Lotto tickets all over the state.
Jensen, who plays Lotto once in a while, said that when he learned of the contest, NASA was in the news.
"NASA had just landed their recent rover on Mars," he said. "I wanted something with rocks, as if scratching the rocks."
So he created a ticket that is a Martian landscape, dotted with rocks, some of which can be scratched off. The more aliens that appear under the rocks, the more the ticket winnings are.
The ticket designs were put online for public vote. There were more than 12,722 online votes, and 2,665 of those votes were for Jensen's Life on Mars ticket.
Unfortunately, winning a design contest isn't as lucrative as winning the lottery. In fact, this distinction is likely to cost Jensen, a software engineer.
"I told my friends that, if I won, I'd buy them each a ticket; so I guess I'll have to buy a few tickets next spring," he said.
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