$50K Lotto Win Celebrated By Employee Who Bought Tickets On Her Lunch Break

BOWIE, MD — A Prince George's woman who plays both daily Pick numbers and scratch games decided to try a new scratch-off game and ended up winning $50,000.

The human resources specialist bought the tickets during her lunch break at the Simran Mart but waited until she got home to scratch them. When the player scanned her tickets, the fourth one popped up as a $50,000 winner. She couldn’t sleep that night, stating she was "just too excited."

“My stomach was in knots,” she told Maryland Lottery officials. “I feel so overjoyed and overwhelmed.”

The winner’s friend accompanied her to claim the prize at lottery headquarters in Baltimore.

“I always tell her to try to get the new ones,” he said. “You’ll have a better chance at finding the big ones.”

While the odds of winning on scratch-off tickets don’t change, the number of top-tier prizes available is at its maximum when the game is new. When Cash Blast tickets hit shelves on June 23, the game had eight $50,000 top prizes. The Bowie winner’s prize reduced that total to seven. In addition, the game has 12 prizes at the $5,000 second-tier level and hundreds of thousands of prizes ranging from $10 to $1,000.

Also celebrating is Simran Mart at 2901 Garrison Boulevard in Baltimore, which receives a $500 bonus for selling the top-prize winning scratch-off ticket.