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Wife of late George Washington America finds $100,000 top prize on Blingo Bingo game
Michele America of Baltimore is celebrating her $100,000 Maryland Lottery scratch-off win with a nod to her late husband George Washington America. He was a true patriot, she said, and the timing of her win right before the Columbus Day holiday weekend is an interesting coincidence.
“This is such a good sign that I would win so close to Columbus Day,” she said. “I really feel that this is his way of still taking care of me.”
The 48-year-old said she seldom plays Lottery games and rarely buys $10 scratch-offs like the Blingo Bingo game that delivered her top-prize win. She stopped in at White Marsh Liquors on Pulaski Highway to buy a few scratch-offs because she was waiting for one of her friends to take her to buy a USB port for her phone.
“I decided to purchase it because I was a little bored and it was one of four different scratch-offs that the liquor store had left,” she said. “I love playing the bingo scratch-offs because it takes a while to complete them.”
The game, which came out in May, has eight bingo boards to play.
“I remember scratching the ticket and thinking it wasn’t a winner,” she said. “I was literally a few seconds away from throwing the ticket away because when I scanned it took a few minutes to show that I had won.”
Michele plans to buy new furniture with her winnings and look for a new apartment. She also said she’d think about buying a new car.
Blingo Bingo has one more unclaimed $100,000 top prize, six $10,000 prizes remaining and thousands of other prizes ranging from $10 to $1,000.