Two Greenbelt Residents Win $50,000 Maryland Lottery Prizes in Early 2026

Greenbelt produced two $50,000 lottery winners in the span of about a week and a half this winter, with a local mother and a decade-long lottery player each claiming prizes on different scratch-off games at two different stores less than two miles apart.

The first win came on Feb. 23, when a Greenbelt woman who works in food service walked into the Spring Hill Lake Mini Market at 9240 Spring Hill Lane, bought two tickets from the newly launched $5,000,000 LUXE scratch-off, scanned both at the store, and discovered she had hit a $50,000 third-tier prize. The $50 game had gone on sale only 17 days earlier, on Feb. 6, making her the first player statewide to claim a prize at that level. "It was amazing and very exciting," she said with a smile when she claimed the prize. She said she chose the ticket for a simple reason: "I liked it because it was a new game." The winnings, she said, will help cover some of her daughter's college expenses. As of the claim date, all three of the game's $5 million top prizes and all 10 of its $200,000 second-tier prizes remained unclaimed, along with 11 additional $50,000 third-tier prizes.

The second win unfolded through a chain of small decisions at Greenway Liquors, 7533 Greenbelt Road. A man who has played Maryland Lottery games for roughly a decade stopped in and bought several scratch-offs. One ticket yielded a $5 prize. Rather than pocket the money, he used it to buy a Deluxe Crossword scratch-off. After scratching the ticket, he ran it through the store's lottery ticket checker and sensed something was off. The cashier scanned it to verify, then pulled him aside. The number the cashier read back stunned him: $50,000. He drove home to tell his wife and son before making the trip to Maryland Lottery headquarters in Baltimore, where he officially claimed the prize on March 3.

The man, who said his regular games include Keno, Multi-Match, and whatever new scratch-offs have recently hit shelves, reported winning about $1,000 across various games over the past few months. "I like the newer scratch-offs," he said. "It feels like the chances of winning are better." He said he plans to weigh his options carefully, with one possibility being an investment in a storefront or family business. Greenway Liquors will receive a $500 bonus from the Maryland Lottery for selling the winning ticket, a standard incentive the lottery pays to retailers whose customers claim large prizes.

The Maryland Lottery's March 6 winners' bulletin included the Greenbelt man's claim among its featured wins for the week. The two wins, separated by just eight days and originating from two neighborhood shops in the same city, mark an unusual stretch of fortune for a single Prince George's County community.