A Lottery enthusiast plans to use some of his $50,000 Early Bird Holiday Raffle prize to pay off his car.
A Lottery enthusiast and coffee drinker from Washington, D.C. is the winner of the first of three $50,000 Early Bird prizes from the new Holiday Raffle game. When he claimed his prize Nov. 25 he said, “I’ll be back!”
He used Arnold Schwarzenegger’s famous catchphrase from the Terminator movies as an alias to tell his tale of winning and reiterate that he plans to win again.
Every morning on his way to work, the maintenance worker stops at the 7-Eleven at 700 Gaither Road in Rockville for coffee, and Nov. 13 was no exception. On that day, he got a call from his girlfriend who gave him instruction that he should purchase a $20 Holiday Raffle ticket along with his coffee.
The winning coffee drinker went about his business but he and his girlfriend checked the winning numbers for the first Early Bird drawing on Nov. 24. Realizing it was a winner, they made an appointment to make the claim the following day.
The winner plans to use his prize money first to pay off his car.
“That way I won’t have any bills,” he said. An avid golfer, he also is pondering a trip to play the links at the Pinehurst resort in North Carolina.
“I’ll Be Back” is confident about his prospects for another big win as he has a $25,000 claim to his name from the DC Lottery. Going forward, he’s focused on Powerball, Mega Millions and Cash4Life.
“Anything that can get me done working!” he quipped.
In addition to the multi-state big money games, he’s also got a chance to win another prize of anywhere from $50 to $1 million on his winning Holiday Raffle ticket. While it isn’t eligible for the two remaining Early Bird drawings, it will be in the mix for the final drawing on Jan. 2, 2026.
The Holiday Raffle launched on Nov. 3 with a maximum of 325,000 tickets. Raffle tickets will be available until they are all sold, or through Jan. 1, 2026, whichever comes first. In each drawing, the winning numbers are selected from the range of tickets that have been sold.
Three more Holiday Raffle drawings remain. Two more $50,000 Early Bird prizes will be awarded on Dec. 8 and Dec. 22. And then the final drawing on Jan. 2 will award one top prize of $1 million; 10 second-tier prizes of $100,000; and 10,000 prizes ranging from $50 to $500.
Tickets are $20 and are available at any Maryland Lottery retailer. There are no numbers to choose. Each ticket will be sequentially numbered in the order it was sold, with the number printed on the ticket.
