He buys, she scratches, but who claims the prize?
An Anne Arundel County couple faced a welcome dilemma recently. The husband buys scratch-offs as a weekly diversion and brings them home to his wife, who scratches off the games to see if they are winners. There was a wrinkle in the Severna Park couple’s routine recently when a scratch-off carried a $100,000 top prize. At issue: who travels to Maryland Lottery headquarters in Baltimore to make the claim.
“She didn’t want to come with me,” the husband said after claiming the top prize on the $10 Ultimate Cash scratch-off. They will, however, be dining in style together, he said. “We’re going to celebrate with a dozen jumbo crabs.”
Beyond that, not much will change. The 76-year-old said they plan to squirrel the money away and keep on playing as before.
“My wife and I play once or twice a week,” he said. They usually get two scratch-offs at the $10 price point, “except when Mega Millions or Powerball get high,” he said. When that happens, they add those tickets to their routine purchase.
Sharing in the financial fun is Harris Teeter #364 at 143 Ritchie Highway in Severna Park. The Anne Arundel County business receives a $1,000 bonus from the Lottery for selling a $100,000 top-prize winning scratch-off. The bonus is equal to 1% of the prize.
The Ultimate Cash game went on sale in June with eight top prizes; seven remain unclaimed. The game also has seven $50,000 prizes remaining, 34 $10,000 prizes and others ranging from $10 to $1,000.
