‘Superstitious’ lottery player’s ‘morning ritual’ leads to jackpot win in Maryland
A “superstitious” lottery player has a “morning ritual” — and it paid off big time in Maryland.
The man learned he hit the jackpot as he made his routine stop to check how his old lottery tickets fared. He said he was at the store with his friend when a lucky message popped onto the ticket scanner.
“My buddy was on the other end of the store,” the man told the Maryland Lottery in a Jan. 30 news release. “I called him over to ‘Look at this message!’”
But the winner, who lives in Carroll County, still didn’t know how much his ticket was worth. So, he went to another store and checked with a manager.
“She said she could not breathe,” the lottery player told officials. “Well, that was great and I am glad she was excited, but she still didn’t tell me how much I won.”
The man eventually realized he was in store for a $50,000 windfall. Though the winner felt calm when he found out the news, officials said he was hit with a “jolt of excitement.”
The man — who also shops for new lottery tickets when he checks the old ones — bought the lucky ticket at a Wawa convenience store in Westminster, roughly 30 miles northwest of Baltimore. During a Jan. 10 drawing, the ticket matched enough numbers to score the top prize in the Bonus Match 5 game, officials said.
Though the maintenance technician let the lottery randomly pick the ticket numbers for him in that drawing, his strategy changes when it comes to the Pick 3 game. He often chooses the number 2, which reflects the early start to his day.
“He is superstitious, the winner said, and plays the numbers associated with the time of day he wakes up,” officials wrote.
The lottery in its release didn’t say how much the man spent on his Bonus Match 5 ticket or how much he kept after taxes. The winner plans to put his prize money toward bills.
The man’s win came after someone else with a morning lottery routine got richer in South Carolina, McClatchy News reported in August.
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