Grandpa does double take after ‘mistake’ ticket nets big lottery win. ‘My goodness’
While a Baltimore grandfather was hanging out at a neighborhood bar with friends, he bought a lottery ticket.
The retired truck driver played his favorite game Keno at North Point Liquor and Bar in Baltimore on June 5, Maryland Lottery officials said in a June 11 news release.
“He likes to watch the Keno monitor as the numbers pop up, one by one, in hopes of seeing his numbers match,” lottery officials said.
The man paid for a 10-spot ticket, which included 10 games each costing $4, lottery officials said. He also added a bonus multiplier, which he didn’t realize would “boost the ticket price so high.”
When he handed the pay slip to the bar worker, she questioned the ticket’s high cost.
“She said, ‘This is $40. Do you want to keep it?’” the man told lottery officials. “I said, ‘Go ahead.’ I always keep my mistake tickets.”
The man told lottery officials he worries if he refuses a mistake ticket, its numbers will show on the screen.
The grandfather sat watching as the game played, lottery officials said. His numbers started to pop up on the monitor.
“I said to myself, ‘Oh my goodness, I got nine out of 10,’” the man said, per the release. “It said $32,000. I said, ‘Oh my goodness, I’ve got to do a double take.’”
The man looked over his ticket once more.
Sure enough, he had won “the biggest Keno prize of his life,” according to lottery officials.
He “then quietly put the lucky ticket in his wallet and went home, where he signed it and kept it in a safe place” until he could claim his prize, officials said.
The man told lottery officials he plans to tuck his winnings away in the bank.
This story was originally published June 12, 2024 at 12:47 PM with the headline "Grandpa does double take after ‘mistake’ ticket nets big lottery win. ‘My goodness’."
