Lottery player moves up retirement after big win on ticket she almost didn’t buy
For a moment, a Maryland woman wavered as she considered a $50 lottery ticket purchase.
The game, $5,000,000 Fortune, was a bit different than her usual bingo games, Maryland Lottery officials said in a June 24 news release.
“I was thinking, ‘I want to play. I don’t want to play. I want to play. I don’t want to play,’” the woman told lottery officials.
She finally settled on buying the ticket — and it’s a good thing she did, as it led her to a life-changing win.
The Essex woman carefully scratched her ticket, lottery officials said.
“The first thing she noticed was the image of a stack of cash in one square where there are usually numbers,” lottery officials said.
The image denotes that the player automatically wins the amount shown, according to lottery officials.
So, the woman scratched the ticket to reveal the QR code and scanned it at the store, lottery officials said.
Upon first glance, the woman thought she won $50,000.
“I was thinking, ‘That’s good. I can do $50,000,’” she said.
Then, lottery officials said she took another glance, “and that’s when the jumping started.”
She had won the game’s top prize of $5 million.
Initially, the woman had planned to retire at the end of the summer, but now she can move that date up a bit, lottery officials said.
The winner told lottery officials she plans to buy a house and cars for her and her daughter.
“She gets her Jeep. I get my Jeep,” she said.
After using some more of her winnings to help family, the woman said she plans to invest the remainder.
Essex is about a 10-mile drive northeast from Baltimore.
This story was originally published June 24, 2025 at 1:21 PM with the headline "Lottery player moves up retirement after big win on ticket she almost didn’t buy."
