BALTIMORE – A Montgomery County player reported her biggest ever Lottery win was $500. The purchase that brought her to Lottery headquarters on June broke her personal record many times over – a thousand times over, in fact.
The game she played: Gifts of Green. The prize that left her speechless: $500,000.
Coincidentally, not only did both of her personal-best wins arrive via a scratch-off ticket, but also both were purchased from the same retailer – a Giant grocery store in Silver Spring.
“I kept going back there because it felt like my lucky store,” the retired recruiter said. Almost certainly the understatement of the year.
A long-time instant ticket fan, for many years she stuck to $5 and $10 games – until a chance encounter changed things.
“I was behind someone in the Lottery line who said to herself, ‘You have to play big to win big.’ Ever since then, I try to get at least one $20 or $30 game when I play,” the winner said.
Her splurge purchase turned out to be Gifts of Green – a $20 ticket – and when she got home from shopping, it was the last game she scratched.
“I knew it couldn’t be right, I thought to myself when I saw the match. It can’t be me,” she said. Doubts notwithstanding, it was her.
She scored the fourth of seven top prizes on the game. This fact was confirmed by several of her family members to whom she sent photos of the ticket via text. One asked if the winning woman had put on her glasses to be sure she was seeing things clearly.
“I have two pairs of glasses. I told him that I’d used both!” she said after claiming.
Thanks to the big win, the Giant at 11221 New Hampshire Avenue in Silver Spring remains the player’s favorite place to buy Lottery tickets, and Gifts of Green has become her favorite game.
The Montgomery County business receives a $1,000 bonus for selling the top-prize winning scratch-off. Gifts of Green, which debuted in October 2025, still has three $500,000 winning tickets that remain unclaimed, as well as two $25,000 unclaimed second-tier winners.
