Huge week of wins for Maryland players last week
By Kate Northrop
Lottery players across the state of Maryland have collectively hit it big after one week of wins valued at $10,000 and more resulted in a massive total payout of $29.5 million.
The Maryland Lottery has doled out a whopping $29.5 million in prize money after tallying up the total winnings from last week, including for Pick 5 players raking in thousands everywhere.
The Lottery attributed the payout to "a slew of $50,000 wins," which made the game the Lottery's "hottest ticket of the past week."
On Sept. 22, the midday Pick 5 drawing resulted in the winning combination 8-8-7-6-8, which produced five top prize-winning tickets that each won $50,000. All five were sold at Ollie's Beer, Wine & Deli on Veirs Mill Road in Rockville.
The Sept. 27 evening drawing eclipsed those results. That night, winning combination 6-2-6-2-6 had 14 winning tickets that matched all numbers in exact order, each worth $50,000. Ten of the tickets were sold at an Exxon in Hanover, according to the Lottery.
The largest prize won last week was from a $10 "High Voltage" scratch-off game that awarded a player $100,000, sold at Hillandale Beer & Wine on New Hampshire Avenue in Silver Spring.
The Lottery counted 50 winning tickets that won a prize of $10,000 or more during the week of Sept. 21-27, with the total amount of prize money won by players coming to more than $29.5 million. Those games include Pick 5, Fast Play, scratch-off games, Powerball, and Racetrax. Of those tickets, the Lottery has confirmed that seven of them have been claimed.
Lottery winners in Maryland have 182 days from the draw date to claim prizes. The Lottery encourages players to sign the back of tickets and store them in a safe place.
Prizes of $25,000 or more must be claimed at the Maryland Lottery Customer Resource Center in Baltimore by appointment only. Prizes up to $25,000 can be claimed at the cashier window of any of the six casinos in Maryland.
But, how much did the state take in during that same period?
$29..5 million? The "slew" of $50,000 Pick 5 winning tickets wouldn't put a dent in that. Seems (to me) it would be more aptly explained by winners cashing in tickets on the three Pick 3 "triples" that came in just prior to that Pick 5 drawing. Three triples in twenty-two draws sounds suspect to me. And it happened in the backyard of the Pick 5 "mistake" that happened earlier this year in DC. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that Maryland's RNGs came from the same vendor. I'll go one step better and guess that (if he/she is still employed) the same person that made the "mistake" in DC maintains Maryland's system as well. Best way to get your contract renewed is to line the pockets of the decision makers.
Sorry to all for sounding negative, but I have no love for RNGs whatsoever, and my opinion of them was already justified once this year.
I hit the NM p4 4444 this week. I went to collect the $5k and was told there was too many winners. I got $3600 instead with the $150 front,middle and back included. Another lottery player came into the office collect the $5k and was upset with the reduced payout. I told the lottery people thanks and I was happy and left.