Lottery player and daughter enjoy 3 a.m. celebration
A longtime Maryland Lottery enthusiast from Crownsville was all smiles on March 24 as she claimed the latest $50,000 prize on Bonus Match 5.
She became the seventh player in the past two months to land the daily game’s top prize by matching all five of the numbers drawn. The lucky winner plays Bonus Match 5 on a regular basis and also enjoys playing scratch-offs with her daughter, who accompanied her to Lottery headquarters to claim her prize. While she has sets of birth dates and anniversaries that she often plays, her winning ticket for the March 23 drawing was comprised of numbers that she chose at random: 5, 11, 18, 26 and 35.
She didn’t watch the Bonus Match 5 drawing when it aired on WBAL-TV. But at about 3 a.m., the woman and her daughter decided to check the winning numbers on mdlottery.com. When they realized that the ticket was a big winner, disbelief set in.
“I said, ‘That can’t be,’ ” the lucky winner recalled. “We kept looking at each other and saying, ‘Check again!’ And then we checked again to make sure we were looking at the winning numbers from the right date.”
It was the middle of the night and they didn’t want to wake up the rest of the family. “We had a light cheer,” her daughter said. “Everyone else was in bed.”
The family celebrated together in the morning before the Anne Arundel County resident visited Lottery headquarters. This is, by far, her largest Lottery win. Her previous best was about a year ago, when she cashed in a $3,000 Keno ticket. The mother of two said she plans to put her prize into savings and start college funds for her three grandchildren.
She purchased her lucky ticket at Champion Liquors, located at 7385 C Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. in Glen Burnie. The retailer is a winner as well. The store will receive a $500 bonus from the Maryland Lottery for selling the top-prize ticket in the game.