Wife’s Advice Leads to $10,000 Scratch-off Prize

Retired Baltimore resident becomes latest winner of top prize in 10x Cash game

196-10x-Cash-ITVM_P1-blueA retired Baltimore resident has his wife of more than 50 years to thank for his latest Maryland Lottery prize. Her advice on which scratch-off ticket to buy turned out to be a $10,000 winning suggestion.

The longtime Lottery fan is an avid Pick 3 and Pick 4 player, but said his wife is the family scratch-off expert. Based on her recommendation, he picked up three 10x Cash tickets last week from Mall Spirits in Baltimore.

“I don’t play scratch-offs, but she said that was a good one to play,” he said.

He didn’t win anything on the first two tickets. But on the third scratch-off, he revealed a $1,000 prize on the first of the 10 lines.

“When I got the $1,000 at the top, I scratched the bottom line and saw another $1,000, and that’s when I knew it was $10,000 because there aren’t any prizes on this ticket between $1,000 and $10,000,” he said. “I was shocked.”

But he didn’t immediately scratch the rest of the ticket. Instead, he took it home to his wife to let her scratch it and reveal the remaining eight lines of $1,000.

The lucky winner said he’s had a couple of $5,000 prizes over the years and has won $2,500 three times this year playing Pick 4. He intends to donate part of his latest prize to his church and put the rest in the bank.

He purchased the winning $10 ticket from Mall Spirits located at 6630 Reisterstown Road in Baltimore. 10x Cash launched in March and started with 85 $10,000 top prizes. Nineteen of those are still waiting to be claimed, and there are also six remaining $1,000 prizes.