Years ago, a Waldorf man said he had a numeric premonition about Maryland Lottery numbers, but he missed out on winning because he didn’t buy tickets. He’s been playing Lottery games regularly over the years, and he recently landed his long-awaited big win — a progressive jackpot prize of $63,886 on the $5 FAST PLAY Home Run Riches Walk-Off Winnings game.
“Maybe it was for the best,” he said Sept. 17 when he claimed his prize at Maryland Lottery headquarters, adding that at the time of his premonition, he was young and may have made poor choices with the money.
The numbers came to him in a dream, and when he awoke, the digits were still vivid in his mind. In those days, his practice was to buy $20 worth of tickets with the same combination. He told his mother about the dream and the numbers, and she suggested he buy Lottery tickets. He didn’t get around to it — and the digits hit anyway.
“This is wild,” he remembers thinking at the time.
Decades later, he remains a Lottery fan. On July 25, he stopped at A1 Plaza Liquors and Wines, located at 3215 Plaza Way in Waldorf, and bought the Home Run Riches Walk-Off Winnings ticket that delivered one of the game’s progressive jackpot prizes. The Home Run Riches progressive jackpot starts at $40,000 and increases with the sale of each ticket until a jackpot winner is sold.
Winning a lot of money, he said, is part of the appeal of playing Lottery games, but he added there’s another good reason to play, even without a win: “It goes to the state and promotes a lot of good.”
His plan for the windfall: “I’m just going to put it in the bank and thank the Lord for it,” he said, adding that he’ll spend the coming weeks and months thinking about the good he can do with the money.
A1 Plaza Liquors and Wines received a bonus of $638.86 for selling the top-tier prize winner — equal to 1% of the prize, per standard Lottery retailer incentives.
The win is the latest in a run of big Lottery payouts in Waldorf this year, including a $50,000 win in August, a third $50,000 win at one Waldorf store in September, and a $50,000 Powerball prize cashed in July.
