Lottery player’s win on free ticket leaves her stunned in Maryland. ‘Too many zeros’
Though “all she was looking for was a tank of gas,” a Maryland woman found “the stuff of dreams.”
While making a quick stop for gasoline at a Shell station in Marlboro Pike, the Clinton woman decided to buy a lottery ticket, Maryland Lottery officials said in a Jan. 3 news release.
“I play once or twice a week,” the woman told lottery officials. “It had been a few days so I decided to play my numbers while I was there.”
After the cashier handed the woman her Pick 3 ticket, he handed her another lottery ticket.
“When the guy handed me the FAST PLAY ticket, I thought he’d made a mistake,” the woman told lottery officials.
However, the extra ticket was part of the Let it Snow promotion that “awarded players at random a free FAST PLAY ticket in December after Pick 3/4/5 purchases,” lottery officials said.
While her Pick 3 ticket wasn’t a winner, it was a different story when she checked her free $5 Merry Money Match ticket.
“When I scanned it, I thought the guy had made another mistake. There were just too many zeros,” the woman said. “He must have given me a messed-up ticket.”
But then, the woman had a friend look over the ticket.
“We both realized that it was real at the same time,” the woman told lottery officials. “It was tough, but we held it together until we got back in the car.”
The woman won one of the game’s 10 top prizes of $50,000, her biggest lottery win to date, officials said.
Marlboro Pike is about a 40-mile drive southwest from Baltimore.
This story was originally published January 6, 2025 at 1:27 PM with the headline "Lottery player’s win on free ticket leaves her stunned in Maryland. ‘Too many zeros’."
