Severna Park Woman's $50K Lottery Win a 'Once in a Blue Moon' Event

SEVERNA PARK, MD — A Severna Park resident who said she doesn’t buy Maryland Lottery games very often was in a winning mood on Aug. 25 after a successful trip to Maryland Live! casino. She stopped at Discount Cigarettes in Brooklyn Park to buy a Bonus Match 5 ticket and her luck turned into a winning streak.

The retired administrative assistant, who goes by the nickname, “The Queen,” won a $50,000 top prize in the Aug. 25 Bonus Match 5 drawing. She matched all five of the numbers that were drawn that night: 11, 19, 23, 33 and 39.

“I only play once in a blue moon, but I was feeling lucky,” the winner told Maryland Lottery officials when she was joined by family members as she claimed the prize at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore. She purchased three lines of numbers for $2. The Lottery terminal quick picked two of the lines and the one that did the trick contained numbers she picked herself.

“I played birth dates of people close to me,” she said.

The 56-year-old didn’t watch the drawing. She returned to the Baltimore city retailer the next day to use the ticket checker and received a message instructing her to cash the ticket at the Lottery.

“I said, ‘Uh-oh, it must be a biggie,’ ” she said. “I still wasn’t sure how much it was for, but my husband looked at it and said, ‘This is $50,000.’ I was stunned. I’ve never won like this in my life.”

The Anne Arundel County resident said she is planning to take her daughter to Las Vegas for her 21st birthday and the prize will “make this a more pleasurable trip.”

The retailer is a winner as well. For selling the top-prize ticket, Discount Cigarettes located at 5716 Ritchie Highway in Brooklyn Park will receive a $500 bonus from the Lottery.

»Image courtesy of the Maryland Lottery