Winner Ezekiel Simpson and his wife Apree Forkpa of Gwynn Oak enjoy a royal celebration of their $100,000 5 Card Cash win. |
A Baltimore County maintenance worker cleaned up with the Maryland Lottery’s 5 Card Cash game on Oct. 6, becoming the fifth person in Maryland to sweep his way to a $100,000 top-prize win.
“I am still in shock about what has happened and still think this is all just a dream!” said Ezekiel Simpson. “I’ve won $100 before on a scratch-off ticket and that was the most I’ve ever won, so this is something special.”
The Gwynn Oak resident was heading home after work and an evening of shopping when he made one last stop at KC Liquors in Rosedale. After picking up the “weekend essentials,” Ezekiel decided to try his luck with the $2 5 Card Cash instant win / daily drawing game. He bought a ticket, placed it in his wallet and went home to enjoy the weekend.
The next morning after his wife went to work, the 44-year-old faced a challenge finding something to eat for breakfast. “After seeing there was not much food left in the fridge, I decided to go to the grocery store,” he said. The hungry husband remembered his 5 Card Cash ticket and wondered if he’d had any luck in the Oct. 6 drawing. A scanner at the grocery delivered great news – his ticket was a winner! But the cashier delivered sad news – the store couldn’t cash the winning ticket.
Experiencing what he described as a “strange feeling,” Ezekiel went to a nearby 7-Eleven to see if that store could cash his ticket. “I asked the cashier what the limit is on their ticket cashouts and they told me that it was $500,” he said. “I gave them my ticket to see if they could scan it and tell me what I won.”
His wife was driving home from work when she got his happy phone call. “He simply said, ‘You need to come home right now!’ I couldn’t believe what he was saying and I had to pull over on the side of the road to comprehend what just happened,” she said.
The couple plans to pay off bills and purchase their first house together with the prize.
The Lottery launched the $2 game in November 2012. 5 Card Cash is based on a standard poker game using a 52-card playing deck and combining an instant-win feature with a daily evening drawing. The instant-win feature offers prizes up to $10,000 and the evening drawing prizes are up to $100,000.
Not only is Ezekiel walking away with a prize, but so is the lucky Lottery retailer! KC Liquors located at 8200 Pulaski Highway in Rosedale earns a $1,000 bonus from the Lottery for selling a top-prize ticket in the game.