Was hunting for Black game’s top prize
A Mt. Airy construction supervisor was methodically following his plan to dig up the last $1 million top-prize winning Maryland Lottery Black scratch-off when he hit pay dirt – just not as much “dirt” as he’d planned. Even so, the game’s latest winner told Lottery officials he’s happy with the $50,000 prize he just claimed at Lottery headquarters.
The loyal player was following a strategy when he selected the Black ticket as his target. Like many Maryland Lottery scratch-off fans, he visits mdlottery.com when planning his next instant ticket purchase. The site lists each game’s remaining prizes. Players take note if a particular scratch-off available for several months still has a top-prize winner in stores somewhere.
Such was the case for our new winner. The married man starting chasing the $1 million top-prize Black scratch-off, picking up an instant ticket every couple of days in hopes of finding his target. He stopped at Olde Tyme Liquors at 13589 Triadelphia Road in Glenelg one day and began scratching off the $20 Black ticket in the store.
“I saw the matching number right away and when I started scratching the prize amount, I saw a 5, then a 0 and was happy to have a $50 win,” he said. “I scratched a bit more and saw it was $500, which was really exciting. Then, I finished it off and was just shocked.”
The low-key fellow didn’t do much celebrating in the store.
“I had the clerk check my ticket to be sure,” he said. “You should have seen his face when he realized that he’d sold me a $50,000 winner.”
The 55-year-old and his wife plan to pay off debts with the prize. “When the bills are paid, my wife and I will find plenty of ways to enjoy this,” he said.
The Black ticket still has that $1 million winner awaiting discovery as well as two $50,000 winning tickets, three $10,000 winners and more than 77,800 tickets with prizes remaining of $20 to $5,000. The game launched in November 2014.