$50,000 Gold Rush game delivers for Maryland Lottery scratch-off fan
A Maryland Lottery scratch-off enthusiast and her husband got the surprise of their lives on Feb. 20, courtesy of a top-prize winning $50,000 Gold Rush instant ticket.
The Joppa resident enjoys playing scratch-offs and had never won more than $100. On that day, however, the 73-year-old recalls feeling that her lucky day had arrived.
“We had to stop at the cleaner’s, and I told my husband, ‘I’m gonna go buy a scratch-off and I’m gonna win,’ ” she said.
The Harford County woman purchased four $50,000 Gold Rush instant tickets at Royal Farms #52 located at 2410 East Joppa Road in Baltimore. As the couple drove away, she began scratching. She didn’t win any prizes on the first three $5 scratch-offs and started to wonder if her luck had run out.
“There was a lady behind me in line and she bought some of the same ticket, and I thought maybe she got a winner,” she said.
Her fourth ticket, though, did the trick. Underneath the latex was a “10x” symbol with a $5,000 prize, meaning she had won 10 times that amount – $50,000.
“I was scratching and I said to my husband, ‘You’ve gotta look at this,’ because I wasn’t sure,” she said. “I kept looking and he looked. And I said ‘I don’t know. But I think we won $50,000!’ ”
The lucky winner said she and her husband tried not to think about the prize throughout the weekend. They put the winning scratch-off in a drawer and kept checking to make sure it was still there. They were determined not to tell anyone about their Lottery luck.
“We had friends over for dinner and I had to keep watching him to make sure he didn’t say anything,” the winner said with a smile as she looked at her husband. “He can’t keep a snowball in winter.”
They finally did share the news with out-of-state relatives before coming to claim their prize two days later at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore. The Joppa couple recently celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary. They plan to use the prize to pay off credit card bills, put a new roof over their deck and put money into savings.
The retailer is a winner as well. For selling the top-prize-winning ticket in the game, Royal Farms will receive a $500 bonus from the Lottery. The $50,000 Gold Rush ticket launched in January and five of its $50,000 top prizes are still unclaimed, along with 10 $5,000 prizes.