Chicken Dinner in Elkridge Leads to $750,000 Multi-Match Prize

A chicken dinner purchase helped turn “Buzzsaw” of Elkridge into a $750,000 Multi-Match jackpot winner.

Jackpot-winning ticket purchased along with convenience store meal

He wasn’t going to play Multi-Match for the Feb. 6 drawing, but then the Howard County resident got hungry for a chicken box from his local convenience store. The Elkridge player got his chicken and four Multi-Match games on the side, resulting in a $750,000 jackpot win.

“It was all about the chicken,” said the player, who is going by the nickname “Buzzsaw” to tell his story and remain anonymous.

A fairly frequent Multi-Match player, “Buzzsaw” estimates he buys tickets for eight out of 10 drawings in the Monday and Thursday rolling jackpot game. Feb. 6 was shaping up to be an off day for him, but then “Buzzsaw” realized he had a few dollars left after buying his chicken dinner. He decided to play a few Lottery games and added four Multi-Match games at $2 each to his purchase at Royal Farms #054 in Elkridge.

For his first two games, “Buzzsaw” picked a combination of six numbers, and chose the quick-pick option for the remaining two games. In Multi-Match, a single game includes three sets of six numbers – with two of the sets automatically being quick picks. Any of the three sets can win, so “Buzzsaw” had 12 shots at the jackpot. After finishing his chicken dinner at home, “Buzzsaw” went to bed.

“I usually don’t wake up at night,” he said, but on Feb. 6, he found himself lying awake in bed. The loyal player decided to check the four games on his Multi-Match ticket as long as he couldn’t sleep. He got a big surprise!

“I said, ‘Darn, that’s all six. I never won this kind of money before in my life,’” he recalled while claiming his prize on Feb. 7 at Maryland Lottery headquarters in Baltimore.

He hit the jackpot on one of the two games where he chose his own numbers; however, the win was on the second of the two quick-pick combinations for that game. “I had nothing to do with it,” he said.

“Buzzsaw” plans to celebrate his win with a vacation, likely to the mountains of Western Maryland. After that, he expects that he and his son will use a substantial portion of the winnings to buy a house. And, he says he’ll keep playing Multi-Match. “Yeah! Heavens to Betsy, yes! I’m not giving up!”

Also having reason to celebrate is Royal Farms #054 at 8268 Lark Brown Drive in Elkridge. The business receives a $1,000 bonus from the Lottery for selling the jackpot-winning ticket.

This is the first Multi-Match jackpot win of 2023. The game’s jackpot was hit six times in 2022 and five times in 2021.