Lottery player grabs glasses to verify big win. ‘All the zeros made it hard to read’
For a Maryland woman, the thought of her late father puts her in the mood to buy lottery tickets.
The two shared a bond over lottery games, Maryland Lottery officials said in a Jan. 23 news release.
“My dad and I used to do scratch-offs when he was sick,” the Annapolis woman told lottery officials.
So, when he recently popped into her mind, she bought two Powerball tickets for the Jan. 11 drawing.
“Much to my surprise, when I checked, I had won,” the woman told lottery officials. “I was pretty excited, and shocked.”
She won $50,000 by matching four of the five white numbers — 3, 6, 32, 37 and 65 — and the Powerball number 4.
“I had to check it twice,” the woman told lottery officials. “I had to get my glasses because all the zeros made it hard to read.”
Upon confirming her win, she said she “let it sink in for a while.”
With plans for retirement this year, the woman told lottery officials her win proves her “timing is right.”
Despite her win, the winner said she plans to try her luck again when she thinks of her father.
“Could I actually win again?” she asked lottery officials..
Annapolis is about a 30-mile drive southeast from Baltimore.
What to know about Powerball
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.
This story was originally published January 24, 2025 at 2:22 PM with the headline "Lottery player grabs glasses to verify big win. ‘All the zeros made it hard to read’."
