Baltimore resident wins $15,692 after buying ticket in Columbia
A Baltimore great-grandfather who described himself as “a gambler all my life” had his luckiest day ever on Sept. 19 while playing Racetrax, his favorite Maryland Lottery game.
The loyal player purchased a 20-draw Superfecta ticket with the Bonus option and settled in to watch the games at Uppy’s Convenience Store in Columbia. He bet on horses 6, 5, 4 and 1 to finish in that exact order, saying that the numbers came to him randomly.
The 88-year-old didn’t have to wait long for his big payday. In the second race of the 20 he played, the horses finished in exactly that order. The base payout for a 6-5-4-1 Superfecta is $3,923. By adding the Bonus option to his ticket, he increased his prize. The Bonus multiplier for that race was 4, which delivered a total prize of $15,692.
“This is the first time I’ve ever won that big, and I didn’t really know how much it was,” he said. The winner quickly left the Uppy’s store after realizing that he’d won big and tried to cash the ticket a few hours later at Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore. He discovered how much he won when the prize exceeded the casino’s $5,000 cashing limit for Lottery games. That meant the player had to bring the ticket to Lottery headquarters the next day.
“I was shocked,” he said, “and jubilant.”
The lucky winner said he hoped to use the prize to take one of his grandchildren on a trip to Las Vegas. The Howard County retailer is a winner as well. For selling a winning Racetrax ticket worth $10,000 or more, the store located at 8251 Snowden River Parkway will receive a bonus of $156.92 – equal to 1 percent of the prize value.