Loyal scratch-off player wins big on Royal Gems ticket
A marketing professional from Elkton got the surprise of a lifetime on Feb. 25 when she tried her luck with a $20 Royal Gems scratch-off ticket.
The avid scratch-off player said she has had a successful run of luck with other tickets – most notably the $10 Blingo Bingo, which is her favorite. But she was glad she decided to try a different game after she won $50,000 on Royal Gems.
She purchased the ticket at the Pleasant Hill Store, located at 2360 Blue Ball Road in Elkton, and took it home to scratch it.
“I scratched off the first number that I matched and it was $10,000, and I thought I was looking at it wrong,” she said. “I was in disbelief. And then I started scratching the rest of the numbers and I got another $10,000 and then $5,000 and I said, ‘What’s going on here?’ I got out a calculator and added them up and I still didn’t believe it.”
She sent a photo of the ticket to her husband and the two of them confirmed to one another that the prize was indeed $50,000.
“I’m still in disbelief,” she said as she and her husband claimed the prize at Lottery headquarters on Feb. 26. “You just don’t expect to win $50,000 from a $20 scratch-off.”
The Cecil County resident has had numerous smaller wins with Blingo Bingo, and her largest previous prizes were two $500 wins on the Ravens and Win It All tickets. After scratching off the $50,000 winner, she decided to go back to the Pleasant Hill Store and buy another Royal Gems ticket, and her luck continued with a $20 win.
The lucky winner and her husband have been married 29 years, and they plan to use the prize money to pay off their car and possibly purchase a vehicle for their son. They also plan to put money into savings.