Michael Hardin of Hagerstown saw a winning message from a previous player come true. He won $50,000 playing the $50,000 Cash scratch-off.
Wins $50,000 playing $50,000 Cash scratch-off
A couple of weeks ago, a Hagerstown man stopped to get cash for the work week and ended up walking away with a $50,000 winning $50,000 Cash scratch-off.
Michael Hardin is an occasional Lottery player who enjoys $20 scratch-off games. On the day Lottery luck came his way, the 33-year-old stopped at an ATM inside AC&T #700 in Washington County to get lunch money for the week. The fire alarm tech supervisor observed a customer beside him playing $20 scratch-offs. Seeing the man was not having much luck, Michael decided to give a game a try.
“I thought, ‘Maybe the next one in the row will be a winner,’” he recalled. “But he finished out the row, so I looked over at the next $20 game, which was the $50,000 Cash game.”
Michael stepped up to the Lottery vending machine as the previous player dashed out of the store only after delivering a message to Michael. “He said, ‘The next one is going to be a big winner,’” said Michael, smiling.
The Washington County resident purchased one of the $50,000 Cash scratch-offs and had his girlfriend scan it on her phone as they drove home. The player had to pull over because of his girlfriend’s reaction.
“She started screaming, how I won $50,000,” Michael told Lottery officials. “I thought she was doing one of those boyfriend pranks from TikTok.”
Michael grabbed the instant ticket and scanned it himself to confirm the win. He even went to his mother’s house for another scanning confirmation before going to a Lottery retailer for a final and fourth confirmation. He was definitively a $50,000 winner.
He plans to use some of the winnings for a down payment on a new home, invest some of the windfall and also have fun with some of the funds!
Michael’s Lottery retailer also shares in the excitement. AC&T #700 located at 8650 Sharpsburg Pike in Fairplay will receive a $500 bonus from the Lottery for selling a $50,000 top-prize winning scratch-off.
Michael is the 44th person to win a $50,000 top prize on the $20 game. There are 116 top prizes remaining. Also, up for grabs are more than 852,000 prizes ranging from $20 to $5,000.
