Family celebrates lottery player’s Maryland win as he sits in ‘stunned silence’
It’s not every day this Maryland man buys a lottery ticket.
But, with his father’s words sitting at the back of his mind, he recently tried his luck — and it led him to a big prize, Maryland Lottery officials said in a May 2 news release.
As the restaurant worker was headed out the door to buy some lunch in Chestertown, his father made a suggestion, lottery officials said.
“My dad told me to get a scratch-off ticket while I was out,” the man told lottery officials.
Unlike himself, the man said his father is a regular lottery player.
“It rarely occurs to me to buy a ticket when I’m at stores that sell them so I never end up getting one,” he told lottery officials.
This time, though, the man grabbed a sandwich, chips and a drink, then headed over to the store’s lottery ticket section and browsed, lottery officials said.
“I didn’t know what to play,” he said, adding that he asked the store clerk about “which ticket had been winning for people.”
“He pointed to Money Rush,” the player told lottery officials. “That’s what I went with.”
The man scratched his $10 ticket at home with his family, lottery officials said.
“I almost screamed when I saw the $50,000 match,” the winner told lottery officials. “I had to cover my mouth with my hand.”
His family started celebrating as “he sat in stunned silence,” lottery officials said.
“I don’t think I’d even started breathing yet when they started slapping me on the back and hugging me,” he said.
The player called his win “the craziest thing” that has happened to him.
Chestertown is about an 80-mile drive southeast from Baltimore.
This story was originally published May 2, 2025 at 1:40 PM with the headline "Family celebrates lottery player’s Maryland win as he sits in ‘stunned silence’."
