NOTTINGHAM, MD—A Kingsville woman has claimed her prize after buying a winning Maryland Lottery scratch-off in Nottingham.
Emily Keidel won a $133,586 progressive jackpot playing the FAST PLAY Payday game, and the prize came just in time to help her family hunt for a home for six.
The mother of twin boys and twin girls, who are all now school age, said she and her husband love playing Maryland Lottery games but had taken a long break. Then, out of the nowhere, Emily got an urge to try her luck.
“I had a feeling I should play, an itch to play,” she said. “I don’t know what it was.”
The Baltimore County resident visited a 7-Eleven in Nottingham on January 15 to buy a cup of coffee and a few games.
“I had $20 and I bought four of the $5 Payday games,” she said. She checked for a win on each ticket while still in the store and then scanned each ticket into her My Lottery Rewards account. Her smartphone app told her that the first three tickets were not winners, but she saw a surprising message on the fourth ticket.
“It was, ‘No winner,’ ‘No winner,’ ‘No winner’ and the last one said to bring the ticket to the retailer. It confused me.”
The 7-Eleven clerk scanned the ticket and quietly shared news of her $133,586 win. The Payday game has a progressive jackpot that starts at $40,000 and grows with the sale of each ticket until a lucky player buys a progressive jackpot-winning ticket. The shocked mom said she started visibly shaking after hearing the news.
“He had to get me a stool to sit on because my knees were buckling,” Emily said. “I sat there at the 7-Eleven and talked to the clerk for 20 minutes. I was shaking so much that I didn’t think it was safe to drive.”
When she returned home, Emily sent her sons to bounce on the bed to wake up her husband so she could talk with him.
“I won the Lottery!” she said, showing him the winning ticket. “I said, ‘This is real!’ He actually teared up.”
The big win is life-changing for the couple, who had just decided last week to begin searching for a bigger home for their growing family.
“This creates a lot more opportunity,” she said.
The lucky 7-Eleven also is a winner. For selling a jackpot-winning FAST PLAY Payday ticket worth more than $100,000, the convenience store located at 8601 Honeygo Boulevard (21236) earns a $1,000 bonus from the Maryland Lottery.
