Baltimore County man plans to use $100,000 Money Rush prize for home repairs
“Sometimes you have to believe,” said a Randallstown man who recently won the first $100,000 top prize on the Money Rush scratch-off game. In a way, the fortunate player predicted his Lottery luck just days before.
The week prior to his big win, the longtime scratch-off fan decided to add the Maryland Lottery’s contact information to his phone. Whether it was a premonition that he might need to visit Lottery Headquarters or not, the big winner said he had a feeling.
“I read the stories on the website all the time and I just knew that one day my turn would come,” he said.
That day came last week. The married father of three took a morning trip to his local 7-Eleven and purchased a few scratch-off games. On this particular day, he bought two of the new $10 Money Rush tickets because he had already won small amounts on the game since it launched on July 22.
After returning home, he sat with his tickets attached to a clipboard and started scratching them with his lucky quarter. He said he likes to scratch the winning numbers first to see if he has a match, and if he does, he scratches the corresponding prize. To his astonishment, he matched the number 26 for a $100,000 top-prize win.
“I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me and that it was really a $1,000 win,” said the Baltimore County resident. “But, when I scanned it on my phone, I saw that is was $100,000.”
Also, oddly enough, the winner’s matching number for the win was 26, and he bought and played the ticket on July 26.
The lucky winner then called his wife to come see, because he needed a second pair of eyes.
“I thought something was wrong,” said his wife when she accompanied her husband to claim the prize at Lottery Headquarters this week. “It was like a dream, but not a dream.”
The winner said he plans to use some of the prize to make home repairs, and will put the rest into savings. Also a winner is the retailer that sold the lucky scratch-off. The 7-Eleven located at 9100 Liberty Road in Randallstown will receive a $1,000 bonus from the Lottery for selling a $100,000 top-prize winning scratch-off.
The Money Rush game launched on July 22 with nine $100,000 top prizes, so there are still eight of them remaining to be won along with 10 more second-tier prizes of $50,000, 28 $10,000 prizes and hundreds of thousands of additional prizes ranging from $10 to $1,000.
