An Upper Marlboro woman who thought she had won $30 on a Maryland Lottery scratch-off instead discovered she was holding a $30,000 top-prize winner.
The grandmother of 10 claimed the first top prize on the $3 Ms.PAC-MAN scratch-off game on June 3 at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore. The game has been on sale since April 17.
A retired school system employee, the Prince George’s County resident regularly plays Maryland Lottery draw games such as Pick 3 and Pick 4. While purchasing tickets for her favorite numbers, she occasionally adds a scratch-off or two to her purchase.
That routine paid off in a big way during a recent visit to the 7-Eleven at 22 Watkins Park Drive in Upper Marlboro.
The winner initially asked for a $10 scratch-off ticket, but when she learned none were available, she decided to purchase three of the $3 Ms.PAC-MAN Scratch-Offs instead.
Unlike many scratch-off players, she rarely follows the game instructions to reveal symbols and prizes. Instead, she immediately scans the prize check using the Lottery app to see whether the ticket is a winner.
Her first two tickets were non-winners, but when she scanned the third, she thought it said she had won only $30. But something about the way the digits appeared on the screen made her do a double take.
“That has too many zeros,” she recalled thinking.
She took the ticket to the clerk, who scanned it behind the register and confirmed the exciting news: she had just won $30,000.
The winner plans to use her winnings to pay off some debts and purchase new bedroom furniture.
The retailer that sold the winning ticket receives a $300 bonus for selling a top-prize winning scratch-off ticket.
As of June 4, five $30,000 top prizes and 13 $3,000 second-tier prizes remain unclaimed on the game.
The $3 Ms.PAC-MAN Scratch-Off is designed to resemble the Ms.PAC-MAN arcade game and offers instant prizes up to $30,000. If you don’t win a prize on the ticket, you can enter non-winning Ms.PAC-MAN scratch-offs into My Lottery Rewards to automatically receive entries into the second-chance promotion. Five cash prizes are up for grabs, along with two Ms.PAC-MAN Arcade Sets. The first two drawings have already happened and the final is on June 23.
Ms.PAC-MAN™ & ©Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.
This promotion is not administered or sponsored by Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.
