Regular $5 Scratch-Off Game Leads To $50K Payday For Bowie Man

BOWIE, MD — A Prince George’s County scratch-off player consistently played the $5 Gold Bar Bingo scratch-off and won the first $50,000 prize after the game launched its fourth edition two weeks ago.

The 43-year-old winner from Bowie kept playing the Gold Bar Bingo game when the new edition arrived and won small amounts here and there. On July 24, he was running errands and stopped into T & T Liquors in Bowie to check four games that he previously purchased for prizes. He won $20 and used the windfall to purchase four more games.

The Bowie resident told Lottery officials that he likes the Gold Bar Bingo game because of the 1 in 3.83 probability of winning.

Instead of scratching the games, the logistics operations manager scanned the instant tickets’ barcodes. The first scratch-off was not a winner, the next two won $5 each, but the message for the fourth ticket said $50,000. Stunned, the player left the store and called his wife from the car.

“I told her I hit and she thought I was playing,” he told Lottery officials, according to a news release. “I told her I wasn’t playing about this.”

He then scratched the entire instant ticket to see how exactly he won.

The man later went back into the store and had the cashier scan the scratch-off once again. She did and handed him a slip that confirmed his $50,000 win.

“I never thought I would win this much money,” said the winner when he claimed his prize at Lottery headquarters this week.

He plans to put his prize into savings for now and will consider investing the money.

There are seven more top prizes left to be claimed in the game, along with 10 $10,000 prizes, six $5,000 prizes and many others ranging from $5 to $1,000.

Lottery retailer T & T Liquors, 13801 Annapolis Road in Bowie, also will receive a $500 bonus from the Lottery for selling the $50,000 ticket.