Sandra and Jack Sutton of Salisbury pick up a $12,517 Keno prize. |
Sandra Sutton of Salisbury is a fan of Keno, and it’s not because her husband has twice won $5,000 Keno prizes in recent years. The $12,517 Keno prize she claimed at Maryland Lottery headquarters on Dec. 19 came as a happy accident, too. The Wicomico County woman plays Keno not to win but for the social aspect of the game.
She and her husband Jack are lucky in love and in Keno!
“We were headed to a Christmas party but were early, so we stopped at a restaurant where some of our friends play,” said the 57-year-old. She was so engrossed in a friend’s story that she only occasionally glanced at the Keno monitor as her game played.
“Whenever I glanced over, I saw one of my numbers,” she said, adding that her number appeared every time. “After a while I said to myself, ‘Just how many matches do I have?’ ” The stunned player discovered her lucky quick-pick 7-spot wager was a big winner and adding the Super Bonus multiplier to the ticket had created an even bigger win. Jack saw her sitting there with a confused yet amused look on her face and immediately knew what had happened. He whispered, “You did it, didn’t you?”
The days since the win have been happy ones for the food industry employee. She returned to Mojo’s in Salisbury, the site of her big win, to celebrate with her friends and the staff. “We didn’t make a big deal when it happened, so the people there knew that they’d had a winner but not who it was. When I told them, they started shouting, ‘You’re the one!’ ”
The Eastern Shore family will add the $12,517 prize to their savings. They will also continue meeting friends at their lucky restaurant to reconnect and play Keno.
Mojo’s, located at 213 East Main Street in Salisbury, is a winner, too. For selling a winning Keno ticket of $10,000 or more, the retailer earns a bonus of $125.17 — equal to 1 percent of the prize.