Uber Driver Picks Up a Big Win

$100,000 top prize will bring family together

It was Friday night, and a Silver Spring man had just dropped off his last Uber passenger of the day when he noticed that he was getting low on gas. This led him to the pumps at Colesville Road Exxon and then inside to a Lottery vending machine, where he faced a dilemma.

“I’d just gotten an unexpected, very generous $20 tip, so I planned to buy one $10 scratch-off ticket there at the gas station,” said the husband and father. “The $10 Ca$h Bonus ticket I picked was a bust, so I debated getting one more. I must have stood in front of the machine for five minutes thinking about it.”

Finally, after deciding to try his luck one more time, the 40-year-old had barely started scratching the game when he saw what looked like a $100,000 top-prize win.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes. My mind just went blank.” Seeing the confusion on his face, another customer pointed him to the store’s ticket scanner. “The scan came up $100,000 but I still didn’t believe.”

The Montgomery County resident went home and checked the Ca$h Bonus instant ticket with the Lottery app on his smartphone. Only then was he sure enough about his $100,000 top-prize win to tell his wife. He also told her the first thing he planned to do with the prize.

Our winner had made plans for his wife and kids to visit their East African home even though he could not join the trip for financial reasons. “I told her that we could now both go, that we could make the trip together with the kids. There were lots of tears.”

His lucky Lottery retailer, Colesville Road Exxon at 8384 Colesville Road in Silver Spring, also benefits from its lucky sale. The Montgomery County business will receive a $1,000 bonus from the Lottery for selling a $100,000 top-prize winning scratch-off.

The Ca$h Bonus game debuted in August 2021. This win leaves two of the original eight $100,000 top-prize winning scratch-offs remaining in stores along with three unclaimed $50,000 prizes and nine $10,000 prizes.