Kindergarten teacher finds game’s $30,000 top prize
A Kensington man who is a big fan of the Maryland Lottery’s Keno game bought the instant ticket version while grocery shopping and bagged its $30,000 top prize.
The kindergarten teacher at a private day care center said he doesn’t often play scratch-offs. However, the store where he played Keno stopped selling it. “It’s been about four months since I’ve played Keno,” he said.
After he finished grocery shopping at the Safeway in Kensington, the Montgomery County resident purchased a couple of scratch-offs, including a $3 Instant Keno game. “I thought since I can’t play the monitor game, maybe I’ll be lucky on one of these,” said the winner. Boy, was he right!
He was with his mother at the time and, although he started scratching off the instant ticket in his car, he finished doing so at home. The novice scratch-off player initially thought he had five matching numbers on his instant ticket. The 49-year-old looked closer and found nine matches. The lucky man was so thrilled he texted a picture of his ticket to his sister. She revealed even better news – she saw 10 matching numbers and, after scrutinizing the ticket, the winner agreed with her assessment.
“I called the Lottery to really make sure and they confirmed it was $30,000,” he said, smiling.
His three brothers and mother accompanied the family-oriented man to claim his prize at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore. The winner plans to pay bills with his windfall, put a down payment on a new car and save the rest for his retirement.
For selling a top-prize scratch-off of $30,000, Safeway #2753 located 10541 Connecticut Avenue in Kensington will receive a $300 bonus from the Lottery. The game still has lots of big prizes waiting to be found at Lottery retailers, including two more $30,000 top prizes and five $10,000 prizes.