“Kelly” of Howard County was in disbelief upon checking her $50,000-winning FAST PLAY ticket with the MD Lottery app.
Initial disbelief gives way to thoughts of buying a new car
She wasn’t sure, so she showed the FAST PLAY ticket to her dad and he said it wasn’t a winner. Then, she showed it to her daughter, who is a lawyer, and she said it wasn’t a winner. Finally, the anonymous player scanned the FAST PLAY Mega Multiplier ticket using the Maryland Lottery app on her phone and confirmed her win. The prize that was nearly dismissed: $50,000 on the $10 game.
“I’m going to get a new car!” said “Kelly,” a resident of rural Howard County. No specific make or model is in her mind, but she’s leaning toward a hybrid. At present, she’s driving a car that’s a little more than 10 years old, with more than 100,000 miles on it, so “it’s about time.”
A lifelong lottery player, “Kelly” previously lived in West Virginia, where her top win was $12,000, and she also hit for $7,000 and $3,000. In Maryland, her previous personal best was $5,000.
“I’m a regular player. Scratch-offs. FAST PLAY. Keno,” she said.
Her all-time top win came on a ticket she bought last weekend at River Hill Sunoco at 5015 Signal Bell Lane in Clarksville. Meticulous in the way she plays, “Kelly” took the ticket home and, starting at the bottom of the ticket where the big prizes are, started checking her numbers against the winning numbers. As she went, she crossed off non-matches with a red marker.
“I’m very OCD about how I do my tickets,” she said. “I start with the highest row first because you don’t win those.” The idea is for her chances of winning to increase as she plays, even as the prize value decreases. It didn’t work that way this time. In the first row she played, Row 5, she crossed off two non-matches then put her marker down on a match before circling it. She then continued through the play area.
The match, the number 45, had the amount $1,000 under it, but it was in the 50X multiplier row, making it a second-tier $50,000 winner on the game.
“That’s when it snowballed into the ‘no ways!’” “Kelly” said. Her own “no way” thoughts, of course, were reinforced by her father and sister. Running a quick scan on the ticket, however, broke the spell of disbelief that comes from enjoying playing but not really expecting to win.
“If you’re expecting it, you’re not playing right,” “Kelly” said.
The Mega Multiplier game started with 30 top prizes at the $100,000 level and, to date, 24 of those tickets have been sold. In addition, it started with 16 prizes at “Kelly’s” second-tier $50,000 level, and hers is one of three winning tickets sold. The game, which went on sale in April 2023, also has 25 remaining prizes at the $20,000 level and another 25 at the $10,000 level.
