Dad buys lottery ticket to keep busy during kids’ movie. Win left him stunned
A Maryland father was looking for a way to occupy his mind as he watched a children’s movie with his son and daughter.
He settled on buying a few lottery tickets to play during the movie, and one of the tickets came with a win that proved to be more than a mere distraction, Maryland Lottery officials said in an Aug. 20 news release.
Before the showing with his preschool-aged kids and wife, the father bought ice cream and a few scratch-off lottery tickets from an Eldersburg grocery store, lottery officials said.
The father scratched his tickets that evening as he watched the movie with his family, lottery officials said.
After scratching his $10 Money Bags ticket, he found it had a winning number, 25, and he then scratched below the number to reveal a $50,000 prize.
“We kept watching the movie,” the man told lottery officials. “We didn’t believe it was real.”
The father downloaded the lottery app on his phone and scanned his ticket, confirming his big win.
Even though the husband was sure of the win, his wife remained skeptical, lottery officials said.
She, too, downloaded the app on her phone and checked the winning ticket not once, but three times.
The winner told lottery officials he plans to put the winnings in college savings accounts for his son and daughter.
“It’ll be a nice start for a college fund,” the dad said.
Eldersburg is about a 30-mile drive northwest from Baltimore.
This story was originally published August 20, 2025 at 3:52 PM with the headline "Dad buys lottery ticket to keep busy during kids’ movie. Win left him stunned."
