Pasadena Mom Wins $625K, Plans to Buy First House

PASADENA, MD — After getting off work and then dropping off her granddaughter to play in her first softball game, Dawn Kunnecke decided to pick up a few Multi-Match tickets from the Royal Farms store in Pasadena.

The Anne Arundel County resident bought several quick-pick tickets for the Sept. 12 drawing in hopes of winning the jackpot, which had reached $625,000 with a cash option of $312,500. Later, when she got home, the 53-year-old watched the live drawing on television station WBAL and compared her tickets’ numbers to the winning numbers.

“I started checking my tickets as soon as the drawing came on,” the Pasadena mom told Maryland Lotteryofficials. “I had originally purchased five quick-pick random Multi-Match tickets. The first two I checked weren’t winners but then, when I got to the third one, I noticed all my numbers were matching up with what I wrote down from the drawing. That’s when I started getting a little shocked.”

Dawn immediately called in her husband, Ron, to check the numbers, too. They wound up taking the ticket to a Lottery retailer and scanning it there. The couple got great news. The message on the ticket scanner told them to head to Lottery headquarters in Baltimore to claim their $625,000 prize.

Dawn and Ron are no strangers to winning prizes. Earlier this year, they won $2,500 playing Pick 4. The pair opted for the Multi-Match jackpot’s $312,500 cash option. The avid pool players say the first things they’ll buy with the prize are pool accessories.

“We need new pool sticks,” said Dawn, who works as a front counter clerk. “Then, we’ll start looking at pool tables to go along with those new pool sticks we’re going to get.”

They also plan to pay bills with their winnings and buy their first home. “Now we can get a house and we’ll need a nice space to put our soon-to-be pool table in,” she said. “This is such a blessing for us.”

The Royal Farm store at 8551 Fort Smallwood Road will receive a $1,000 bonus from the Lottery for selling the winning Multi-Match ticket.

»Photo: A new house, pool table and pool sticks are on the must-buy list for this Pasadena couple, who claimed a $625,000 Multi-Match prize. Courtesy of the Maryland Lottery