Milton Wolpert of Baltimore won $37,388 on a $2 Racetrax Superfecta bet. |
90-year-old Lottery enthusiast takes home $37,388 on $2 bet
Milton Wolpert, a vibrant 90-year-old from Baltimore, remembers when the Maryland Lottery first started in 1973, with its headquarters at the Rotunda, a small shopping mall located in the historic Hampden area.
More than four decades later, the Lottery is now housed in the historic Montgomery Ward building at the corner of Washington Boulevard and South Monroe Street. Milton visited Lottery headquarters on March 1 and said he never would have guessed that he would be cashing in a Racetrax ticket worth $37,388 at one of the most iconic buildings in Baltimore, where he and his late wife of 65 years used to do a lot of their shopping.
“We used to come here a lot,” he said. “Who would have thought I’d be back here cashing in a Lottery ticket?”
Milton, who worked for a metal company for nearly 45 years, won his Racetrax prize when he decided to stop at Montgomery Plaza Liquors at 6227 Baltimore National Pike in Baltimore. He purchased a two-draw Superfecta ticket for the computer-animated horse racing game, letting the Lottery terminal Quick Pick his numbers: 8, 4, 2, 12. He said he initially thought he had won about $18,000 but forgot that he had placed a $2 bet on each race. That doubled his prize.
“I remember as I was watching the race, I could see that three of the four horses that I had on my ticket finished in complete order,” he said. “I could hardly bear to watch the last one so I closed my eyes.”
And when he opened them, he learned that he had won twice as much as he thought. Milton, who volunteers at a few senior living facilities in his area and at his church, said he is not yet sure what he will do with the bulk of his prize money. But he said he planned to put some into savings and splurge a bit on his seven grandchildren.
The retailer is a winner as well. For selling the winning ticket, Montgomery Plaza Liquors will receive a $373.88 bonus from the Maryland Lottery – equal to 1 percent of the prize value.