Player has fine tuned which tickets he buys and where he buys them from

By Kate Northrop

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. — A Maryland man says it was "dumb luck" that he ended up winning a $50,000 scratch-off prize from the same lottery vending machine he had won at earlier this year.

In just this year alone, one Maryland lottery player won two big scratch-off prizes from tickets purchased at the same vending machine.

The anonymous winner told the Maryland Lottery that it was all thanks to "dumb luck" and circumstances that landed him his second win. Earlier this year, he had won a $10,000 prize from the vending machine at the Shell gas station on Waterloo Road in Ellicott City he usually visits.

"I play the larger tickets because the odds are better," he said to Lottery officials. He explained that he preferred playing $30 and $50 games.

"But most of my wins come on the $20 tickets," the Ellicott City resident clarified.

On the evening he was scheduled to meet one of his daughters for dinner, he stopped to grab a lottery ticket. He planned on buying two crossword-themed tickets, but he wound up purchasing just one $20 "Lucky 777" ticket since he was in a rush.

That exact situation rewarded him with one of the game's second-tier prizes of $50,000.

Upon claiming his prize, he remarked that most of the prize money will go into a savings account, but he expressed a wish to use some of it to pay for a trip to Disney World with a daughter and her young family, a press release said.

While it remains to be seen whether his luck will continue down the same path, the player emphasized that those prospects truly don't matter. He'll continue to play the lottery the same way he always does.

"My expectations have not changed," he said. "I have no expectation of winning. At best, I'll break even."

For selling the winning ticket, the retailer receives a $500 bonus, or 1% of the prize, from the Lottery. The $20 "Lucky 777" scratch-off game offers six top prizes of $1 million, three of which remain. There are also four out of eight second-tier prizes of $50,000 and 63 out of 91 third-tier prizes of $10,000 left to claim.

The overall odds of winning any prize in the game are 1 in 3.10.