Winner "balled up" six-figure ticket in preparation to trash it

By Kate Northrop

BETHESDA, Md. — A Maryland lottery player's first instinct upon scanning a winning ticket worth $111,971 was to crumple it up, but a second thought saved it from a gut-wrenching potential fate in the trash.

One Maryland resident nearly tossed a Fast Play jackpot-winning ticket worth $111,971, but something prompted them to ask for help with checking it to be on the safe side.

The player, who requested to remain anonymous, told the Maryland Lottery about a day in late November when they went to go buy some tickets for one of their favorite pastimes. They visited Maple Beer and Wine on Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda to play the lottery.

One of the games they played was Fast Play Cash Combination, for which they purchased a $5 ticket that gave them a shot at the game's progressive jackpot.

They explained that they enjoy playing all types of lottery games aside from Racetrax. They're always cognizant of every game's current progressive jackpot amount, and the one for Cash Combination had caught their eye.

They scanned their ticket with the ticket checker in the store and were immediately met with a wave of disappointment.

"It was too many words on the scanner, and I actually balled up the ticket a little bit," the winner said to Lottery officials. "It usually says, 'see retailer,' but it didn't say that."

They tried scanning it again, and again, but then something told him to ask for the cashier's help. The clerk behind the counter looked at the ticket and said something that took the winner by surprise: it had won the $111,971 jackpot.

"I then took a closer look at the ticket and saw I matched the right combination, and beneath it said, 'progressive jackpot'," the winner recalled.

Their nerves immediately got the better of them, so they dashed back home to put the jackpot-winning ticket in a safe spot. Having claimed their prize this week at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore, they said that the winnings will help them become debt free.

For selling the winning ticket, the retailer receives a $1,000 bonus from the Lottery.