“Ima Snowbird” of Reisterstown attributes her FAST PLAY Casino Royal Slots progressive jackpot win of $205,147 to the thing that makes all Lottery wins possible: “dumb luck.”
Baltimore County player gets help from daughter to figure out prize’s size
A Maryland Lottery player from Reisterstown whose previous top win was $1,000 on a Florida scratch-off attributes an Oct. 5 FAST PLAY win of $205,147 to “dumb luck.”
Going by the nickname “Ima Snowbird” to tell her tale of good luck, the anonymous winner says she’s fairly enthusiastic about her Lottery routine. Her husband, who accompanied the winner to claim her prize at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore, offered a slightly different perspective: “I occasionally play. She’s religious!”
In “Ima Snowbird’s” case, letting it ride paid off. She went shopping at Weis Markets #139 in Hampstead on Oct. 5 and purchased four of the $5 FAST PLAY YAHTZEE™ tickets out of the Lottery vending machine. The last ticket won $15, so she scanned it back into the machine and purchased a few more games. One of those tickets won $10. The 63-year-old scanned that lucky ticket back in for another purchase and stopped to ponder whether to buy Powerball tickets, since the jackpot was more than $1 billion, or something else.
She was checking out her options and noticed the $10 FAST PLAY game called Casino Royale Slots. “Ima Snowbird” remembers thinking, “I like to play slots,” and made the purchase.
The lucky lady immediately scanned the ticket on the vending machine to check it for a prize and got a message to take the ticket to Lottery headquarters. A bit taken aback, she quickly took the ticket to her car, locked herself inside and called one of her two daughters. The Baltimore County resident snapped a picture of the ticket and sent the image to her daughter. At that point, she noticed that one of the slot spins on the ticket showed three matching symbols for a win.
“I won the progressive jackpot,” she told her daughter. The daughter, almost at the same time, realized the magnitude of the win and said, “You just won $205,000!”
The retired winning couple, who spend winters in Florida at a second home, have been planning to downsize from their Maryland home so the extra money will come in handy.
“Ima Snowbird” says she’ll gift some of the prize to her daughters, settle up a few bills and buy a car with the proceeds. Beyond that, she also plans to keep playing the Lottery because “dumb luck” may well strike again.
Also getting lucky is Weis Markets #139 at 720 Hanover Pike in Hampstead. The Carroll County business receives a bonus of $1,000 from the Lottery for selling a jackpot-winning FAST PLAY ticket worth more than $100,000.
The Casino Royale Slots game has a progressive jackpot that starts at $100,000 and grows with the sale of each ticket until someone buys a progressive jackpot-winning ticket. There are 27 progressive jackpot prizes remaining, along with other set prizes that range from $10 to $1,000.
