JOPPA. MD—A 65-year-old Harford County woman received a holiday gift for herself while out shopping for stocking stuffers for her adult children. Last week, while on the way out of a store with her husband, she opted to buy several Maryland Lottery FAST PLAY games.
“I hate scratching scratch-offs,” she said. “It’s messy and with FAST PLAY games you can just look at it to see if it’s a winner or not.”
However, as the mother of three contemplated her purchase, she changed her mind. Although she prefers FAST PLAY games, the Joppa resident decided her family might have more fun with scratch-offs in their holiday stockings. She purchased a few scratch-off games for them and kept the FAST PLAY tickets for herself. In fact, she even purchased a few more FAST PLAY games.
The couple didn’t look at the tickets until they got home, oblivious to the fact that one of the FAST PLAY games – the $10 Holiday Money Match – was a $100,000 top-prize winner.
“I circled the winning numbers like I always do and then looked to see if anything matched,” said the retired secretary. “For whatever reason, it just wasn’t making any sense to me.”
The lucky player decided to scan the ticket using the Maryland Lottery app on her phone. She was shocked to see a congratulations message announcing a $100,000 prize. The lucky lady showed the message to her husband, a past winner of a $50,000 Powerball prize, and got a great response.
“I told her, ‘You just had to beat me, didn’t you,’” he recalled, laughing as he shared his experience with Lottery officials.
The happy couple, who are also grandparents, said they plan to shower their children and grandchildren with holiday gifts and will also use some of the winnings to pay off bills.
Also receiving a gift is the Harford County retailer that sold the $100,000 top-prize winning FAST PLAY ticket. BJ’s Wholesale Club, located at 413 Constant Friendship Boulevard in Abingdon, will receive a $1,000 bonus from the Maryland Lottery for its role in the sale.
