A family's lottery win streak continued with a $500,000 Powerball win. The Harford County winner bought her lucky ticket in Middle River.
MIDDLE RIVER, MD — A Harford County woman continued her family's lottery win streak by scoring $500,000 on a Powerball ticket she bought in Baltimore County recently.
The anonymous winner, who is going by "Brown Eyed Girl," is from Joppatowne. She purchased her ticket on Aug. 25 in Middle River at Bernie's Liquors. She collected her prize from Maryland Lottery headquarters last Wednesday.
“This is such a blessing, though I still find it difficult to believe it really happened, even now,” the retired administrative assistant said in a press release. “I cried when I realized that I’d won.”
The victor's late dad frequently won lottery prizes, a trait he passed on to his daughter. This was the biggest prize that either has ever scored.
“My father really enjoyed playing the lottery,” she said. “He had so much fun playing that he’d have continued even without the wins.”
Powerball tickets cost $2. Players can add a Power Play option for $1, letting them multiply their winnings.
They can also pay $1 to add the Double Play option to be entered into an additional drawing.
A half-hour after the main Powerball drawing, numbers from Double Play tickets are entered into another drawing with a jackpot of $10 million.
Brown Eyed Girl paid for the Double Play option, and she scored big in that second-chance drawing. She matched the five black balls in the Double Play drawing, but she did not match the red Powerball number.
Bernie's Liquors, located at 1414 Martin Blvd., will collect a $1,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.
The Powerball jackpot is up to $1.3 billion, the fifth-largest ever. The swelling prize pool has fueled sales and smaller wins statewide.
In the past week, Maryland has seen $50,000 winners on Powerball tickets bought at:
$150,000 winners were sold at Deep Creek Grocery Gas & Liquor, located at 3562 Swanton Road, in the Garrett County community of Swanton and at Gray’s Market, situated at 4000 Chickamuxen Road, in the Charles County town of Marbury.
The last time a jackpot-winning Powerball ticket was sold in Maryland was in 2021. That jackpot was worth an estimated annuity of $731.1 million or $546.8 million in cash.
Since the current Powerball jackpot began to roll on May 31, Maryland has seen 27 prizes of $50,000 or more. That includes two $1 million winners.
The Maryland Lottery has awarded $10.1 million in Powerball prizes in that span.
Of Maryland's $41.1 million in Powerball ticket sales in that window, the state has collected $10.2 million in revenue, representing a quarter of the sales. Retailers have taken home 5.75% of the sales, earning them $2.3 million in commission.
To learn how to claim a prize, click here.
Anybody with a gambling problem can get free and confidential help by visiting mdgamblinghelp.org or calling 1-800-GAMBLER.