A father and his daughter from Washington, D.C., dubbed themselves ‘The Keno Twins’ after claiming a $100,000 prize. |
Washington, D.C., residents win one of Maryland’s largest Keno prizes in six years
A lucky retiree who won big on Keno brought his daughter along with him to Lottery headquarters so that “The Keno Twins” could make history by claiming a $100,000 prize in the game.
The win is one of the five largest Keno prizes won in Maryland in the past six years, and resulted from a 10-spot ticket loaded with family birthdays.
The happy winner is a retired custodian and maintenance worker from Washington, D.C. He purchased several 10-spot tickets on March 9 at Eastover Liquors in Oxon Hill, and watched the games on the monitor at the store. He knew one of his tickets matched some of the numbers, but was surprised when he realized just how many matches existed.
“I was trying to watch, but I had three or four tickets,” he said. “I couldn’t tell how many or how much it was going to be. When I scanned the ticket, it didn’t tell me how much. I said, ‘I must have done pretty good.’ ”
That, of course, is an understatement. By matching all 10 numbers on his ticket, he won $100,000 – literally 100 times more than his previous best Keno win, which came about a year ago.
That evening he called his daughter to share the good news.
“At first he said, ‘I’ve got some money coming,’ ” she recalled. “And I asked him where it was from and he said, ‘Don’t worry about all that.’ But I kept asking and finally he said he hit the numbers.”
“I thought she was going to holler at me about spending money,” the winner said. “I told her it was $100,000 and she jumped.”
The winner said he plans to pay bills, but has nothing special in mind to do with his prize. Eastover Liquors is a winner as well. The Prince George’s County retailer, which is located at 4909 Indian Head Highway, will receive a $1,000 bonus from the Maryland Lottery for selling the winning ticket.