7-02-2024 4:49am

7-ELEVEN MAKES

Jeff Barto Editor

A local man took home a big Powerball win after only ever winning a few bucks playing lottery games in the past, officials said. Upon entering a 7-Eleven store, a banner caught a Maryland man’s eye. “We Sold a $50,000 Winner,” the sign read in reference to a recent winning Powerball ticket sold at the store, Maryland Lottery officials said in a June 27 news release.

Thinking of the winner brought a smile to the Cockeysville man’s face, officials said. Little did he know, he was that winner, something he didn’t learn until the next day. The man, who plays lottery games twice per week, only buys tickets for Mega Millions and Powerball, according to lottery officials. “I’m after those big jackpots,” he told lottery officials, “but I never really expected to win big.”

When the man finally scanned his ticket for the June 3 Powerball drawing, he was puzzled by the message that flashed on screen. “It instructed me to go to the Lottery,” the man told lottery officials. The man spoke with a coworker the next day, who let him know what that perplexing message meant — he won the third-tier $50,000 Powerball prize by matching four numbers and the Powerball.

“When he told me how much I’d won, I just stood there, staring, with my jaw on the floor,” the man said, per the release. “To win this much after never winning more than a few dollars is really impossible to believe.”

While it’s a seeminlgy impossible feat, the man said he still plans to keep purchasing tickets for Powerball and Mega Millions tickets, “just in case.” The man told lottery officials “his prize will go straight into savings.”

To score the jackpot in the Powerball, a player must match all five white balls and the red Powerball. The odds of scoring the jackpot prize are 1 in 292,201,338. Tickets can be bought on the day of the drawing, but sales times and price vary by state. Drawings are broadcast Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays at 10:59 p.m. ET and can be streamed online. Powerball is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

A local resident and avid lottery player from Cockeysville has claimed a $50,000 Powerball prize, purchased from a 7-Eleven store at 10045 York Road. The Baltimore County resident discovered his win after revisiting the store where he noticed a banner proudly proclaiming, “We Sold a $50,000 Winner.”

The winner, who works at a big box store and regularly plays lottery games, shared his initial disbelief with Maryland Lottery officials. “I play for the big jackpots and never really expected to win big,” he admitted. However, his routine purchase of Mega Millions and Powerball tickets twice a week finally paid off earlier this month when he scanned a ticket that instructed him to “go to the Lottery.”

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After consulting a coworker the following day, the winner was stunned to learn he had won a $50,000 third-tier prize from the June 3 drawing. “When he told me how much I’d won, I just stood there, staring, with my jaw on the floor,” he recounted.