Oct. 20 (UPI) — A Texas woman visiting Maryland was convinced by a stranger to play the lottery’s Racetrax game for the first time — and won $37,951.
The nurse, who traveled to Baltimore in September to visit family and friends, told Maryland Lottery officials a stranger at the Quick Mart on Annapolis Road in Halethorpe talked her into trying the virtual horse racing game for the first time.
“He told me he had a good feeling and that I should play,” the player said. “He gave me the numbers to play, helped me fill out the form and everything.”
The woman placed a 50-cent bet on a Superfecta Wheel for 20 races, a total price tag of $70, and she wound up winning big when her horses finished in the correct order during the sixth race.
The player said she didn’t discover she had won until she was back home in Texas.
“I forgot about it, so I grabbed it out my purse and checked the numbers on the lottery’s website,” she said. “I figured out that my numbers matched, but I was still a bit confused.”
A family member was able to help her determine that she had won $37,951.
“He told me I needed to come back to Baltimore to claim it,” she said. “So, here I am.”
The winner said her prize money will go toward starting a mobile transport business.