Laurel man brings home $50,000 prize
A Prince George’s County man may have the Midas touch! He won a second-tier $50,000 prize playing the Gold Rush X100 scratch-off game.
The Laurel resident, who plays almost daily, was getting off work last week when he encountered Lottery luck. He stopped at Long Branch Beer & Wine in Silver Spring and purchased a $30 scratch-off. The DC Metro employee won $40 on that instant ticket, claimed his prize and then reinvested the windfall into the purchase of two Gold Rush X100 scratch-offs. The 50-year-old rarely scratches his games but instead scans the barcode to see the results. He was in for a big surprise after scanning the first of the two $20 games.
“I thought it was $500,000 when I saw all of those zeroes,” the player said. “But, when I saw it was really $50,000, I thought, ‘I’ll take that.'”
The winner immediately left the Montgomery County store, which is located at 649 University Boulevard East in Silver Spring. He hopped in his car and double-checked the instant tickets using the Maryland Lottery app on his smartphone. With the lucky win confirmed, the happy player shared the news with a few family members and made an appointment at Maryland Lottery headquarters to claim his big prize the next day.
The player has big plans for his winnings. He plans to use some of the money for a down payment on a house and save the rest of the windfall.
The Gold Rush X100 game is still packed with prizes. Players can hunt for the three remaining $1 million top prizes along with five more $50,000 prizes, 67 $10,000 prizes and more than 500,000 smaller prizes of $20 to $5,000.