A $50,000 winning Powerball ticket made the anniversary weekend even sweeter for Deborah Sleighter of Ocean Pines and her husband. |
Claim $50,000 prize in Aug. 19 drawing
Lady Luck gave a happily married Ocean Pines couple an anniversary weekend to remember by delivering a $50,000 prize to the longtime Powerball jackpot chasers.
Doug and Deborah Sleighter, who are loyal Maryland Lottery players, won the prize in the Saturday, Aug. 19 drawing and are looking forward to the drawing tonight (Wednesday, Aug. 23). They hope to win the $700 million Powerball jackpot, which is the second largest in the game’s history and the second largest Lottery jackpot in U.S. history! The retirees say they only start playing Powerball “when it’s big and gets up around $300 million” so they are in hot pursuit of the jackpot win.
Deborah enjoys playing other Lottery games, too, including Keno, Mega Millions and Multi-Match. The parents of three adult children say they only play Multi-Match when the jackpot reaches the $1 million mark.
The couple purchased their lucky ticket at Coins Pub & Restaurant in Ocean City, where they often go for happy hour. The business located at 2820 Coastal Highway is one of their favorite locations for Lottery fun and games. Deborah bought their regular batch of five quick-pick Powerball tickets on Aug. 17 in advance of the Aug. 19 drawing, and then they got involved in their weekend celebration. Neither one of them checked the tickets until 8 a.m. Sunday, when they were getting ready to drive to the beach. Deborah was upstairs and her husband was downstairs when they remembered to check the winning numbers.
Deborah did the honors and called out to her husband.
“She had this quivering voice and said ‘I think we got five out of six numbers,’” he said. Sure enough, their ticket was a big winner!
The grandparents of six packed for the beach and took the lucky ticket with them. They stopped at The Casino at Ocean Downs and tried to claim their $50,000 prize but learned they had to do so at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore. A casino employee urged Deborah to sign the back of the winning ticket right away and keep it safe until they could make the trip to Baltimore.
Deciding not to change their anniversary weekend plans, the couple proceeded to the beach and hid the ticket in their locked car. They then enjoyed a day of fun in the sun. Worried about traffic generated by solar eclipse watchers, the two postponed their trip from the Eastern Shore to Lottery headquarters until Tuesday.
“She’s been so excited the last few days,” said her husband. “I’ve been calling her ‘Jackpot’ since she won.”
The Worcester County residents plan to put their money into the bank for now and already have tickets for the upcoming drawing.