ROSEDALE, MD—A Rosedale man’s decision to revisit a long-abandoned lottery strategy paid off in a big way, as he claimed a $40,000 Mega Millions prize last week.
The correctional system administrator, who chose to remain anonymous, visited Maryland Lottery headquarters on Sept. 2 to claim his unexpected prize. The winning ticket, purchased from the Royal Farms at 8803 Philadelphia Road, matched four of the five white balls and the Mega Ball in the Aug. 12 drawing.
The win was especially surprising for the Rosedale resident, who rarely plays and typically spends no more than $5 on a ticket. His biggest win prior to this was $2,000 last year.
“I don’t buy tickets too often, and when I do, I never spend more than $5,” the winner said. “I won $2,000 last year, my biggest prize ever. I never expected to do better.”
The winning numbers were a personal combination of his family’s birth months and years, a method he had stopped using years ago after it failed to produce any wins.
“For many years I used my wife and kids’ birth months and years for my tickets. This produced zero wins for me, so I eventually stopped,” he explained.
Last month, he decided to give the numbers another try. The first ticket he bought with the numbers was the lucky one.
The man’s $10,000 prize was quadrupled to $40,000 due to the ticket’s randomly generated 4X multiplier.
