Curiosity for the new FAST PLAY Lucky Numbers game made Baltimore’s Amro Esso a $50,000 winner. |
Baltimore man wins $50,000 fast with Lucky Numbers Fast Play game
A Baltimore City resident typically only plays the Lottery when Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots are high. But, there was something about the Maryland Lottery’s new FAST PLAY game that caught his eye and had him playing since the game launched on Feb. 10.
Amro Essa was intrigued when he saw signs about the FAST PLAY games and started playing the $10 Lucky Numbers game out of curiosity. And, thanks to his curiosity, Amro is now $50,000 richer.
The 29-year-old used car salesman purchased a few Lucky Numbers tickets from Tobacco Express on Valentine’s Day and started scanning them one by one. His eyes grew large when he came to the final ticket and the message revealed he was a $50,000 winner. But, Amro was blinded by shock.
“I didn’t believe my eyes,” said Amro. “I thought the message was actually showing $500.”
When the revelation that his win was really $50,000, the big winner tucked his ticket in his wallet and headed to Lottery Headquarters to claim the prize before realizing it was too late in the day.
“I was so nervous over the weekend,” he said. “I kept checking the ticket every 15 minutes.”
After the agonizingly long weekend, Amro tried again to claim his prize earlier last week. Unfortunately, he didn’t have everything required to claim and had to travel out of state to get those documents. He finally was able to claim the $50,000 prize last Friday.
The married father-of-two daughters is thrilled about his FAST PLAY win and plans to invest and save the prize money. But, he also plans to drop a little something off to the lucky retailer who sold him the ticket. The big winner made his FAST PLAY purchase at the Tobacco Express located at 728 North Rolling Road in Catonsville.
Lucky Numbers is one of five FAST PLAY games. FAST PLAY is a new Maryland Lottery product with games that are printed by Lottery terminals and self-service vending machines but play like scratch-offs. Also in the lineup are the $1 Piggy Bank Bucks, $2 Cherry Twist, $3 Treasure Chase and $5 Hit $250 games.