Bowie Man Wins $59K Lotto Jackpot With Last $3 In His Pocket

BOWIE, MD — A Prince George's County man who spent the last $3 in his pocket on a Maryland lottery ticket walked away with a $59,054 jackpot.

The Bowie resident, a correctional officer who has played scratch-off tickets for decades, purchased the winning $3 Fast Play Slingo ticket at the Hampton Mall Exxon, located at 8901 Central Ave. in Capitol Heights, in late September.

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The man told Maryland Lottery officials when he claimed his winnings earlier this month that scratch-offs had always been his first choice, with Fast Play tickets taking a back seat.

"I'd buy Fast Play tickets once in a while," he said. "But only after I'd gotten the scratch tickets I wanted. Fast Play was sort of an afterthought."

That changed when he stopped to fill up his gas tank one evening. After buying his usual scratch-off tickets, he used the remaining $3 in his pocket to purchase a Slingo ticket. When he scanned the ticket to check whether he had won, an unfamiliar message appeared.

"The scanner told me to 'Take to Lottery.' I'd never seen that before," he said.

Unsure whether the scanner was working properly, the man drove to another lottery retailer to check his ticket again.

"It was the same thing, same message. So, I took it to the counter to ask the clerk to check. That's when it all became clear," he said.

He had won the game's progressive jackpot worth $59,054. The winner's wife told lottery officials that when her husband called to share the news, she had never heard him sound so excited. The couple plans to use their winnings toward college expenses.

The Hampton Mall Exxon will receive a $590.54 bonus from the Maryland Lottery for selling the jackpot-winning ticket.