A regular Maryland Lottery player who focuses his attention on the multi-state games fell one number short in the Nov. 14 Mega Millions. He may have missed the $980 million jackpot, but still walked away with a $30,000 third-tier prize.
“I’m just a lucky guy,” he said Nov. 26 when he claimed the prize at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore, his son at his side.
He said he tells his son to just “think about winning.” That’s what he did this time around. Then he noticed after the drawing there were three third-tier winners in Maryland.
“I told him, ‘I think one of them was me’,” he said. He was right. He matched four of the first five balls drawn plus the Mega Ball for a base prize of $10,000, but every Mega Millions ticket has a multiplier and in this case that multiplier was X3, bringing the prize to $30,000.
Acknowledging the win is a lot of money, but not really life changing, he will use his windfall for home repairs, to pay down his son’s student debt and to help pay for an already-planned vacation for his wife and son.
“I don’t usually spend a lot on myself,” he said.
He does plan to continue with his Lottery hobby, he said, adding, “I’m going to hit again. I’ll be back.”
His winning ticket was sold at Big B Liquors at 7099 Indian Head Highway in Bryans Road (Charles County).
In that same Nov. 14 Mega Millions drawing, the $980 million jackpot was hit on a ticket sold in Georgia, which reset the jackpot to $50 million.
