$50,000 Bonus Match 5 Win for Baltimore Man
John Hamlin has been playing Lottery games since the agency first set up shop in 1973. While he’s tried them all, his favorite game by far is Bonus Match 5. Win or lose, rain or snow, John has stuck with it, and that loyalty was rewarded this past weekend with a $50,000 win.
John told officials that he has used his kid’s birthdays as inspiration for his numbers for as long as he can remember. “I was picking my numbers last week and decided, on the spur of the moment, to close my eyes and point to different numbers. Those were the ones I played.” And those were the ones that won for him, though he didn’t trust his eyes at first. “I had my sister check on the Lottery’s website and then checked at a Lottery store. When everything checked out I quickly went downstairs to find my blood pressure pills. I just couldn’t believe it.”
Once he was convinced of the win, the retired MTA security officer called his wife who was out of town helping a relative. “The first thing I told her was ‘sit down, honey, you’re not going to believe this.’” A train aficionado since he was a kid, John has long had a dream of taking a leisurely ride across the country. Bonus Match 5 may have just bought the two tickets the couple will need. All aboard!