ROSEDALE, MD—She was driving home from a doctor’s appointment when it hit her, a 69-year-old Baltimore resident explained to Maryland Lottery officials. She got the urge to play a scratch-off that visits her maybe twice a week. About five minutes later, she experienced a second urge that was so significant she stopped at Royal Farms in Rosedale.

The retired seamstress selected a $5 Diamond Mine X9 scratch-off and played it.

“I said to myself, ‘It can’t be,’ right there in the store,” she said. The lucky lady had played Diamond Mine X9 a few times in recent weeks and, on one occasion, was convinced that she won only to realize that she had mistaken one of the game’s symbols for another. The game features an array of symbols and having three of them appear on one line delivers a prize.

“I was so sure that I was making the same mistake, that the symbols didn’t really match,” she said. Happily, the scanner at the store allayed her fears.

“My mind was a complete blank. It took me a minute or two to really comprehend that I’d just won $50,000,” she said. “After that, it was just relief, pure relief.”

The winner tells us that her Diamond Mine X9 win makes all the difference in the world for her retirement plans. “My husband and I came up a little short when planning our after-work life. This win means so much to us. We’re both very grateful.”

For its role in selling a $50,000 top-prize winning scratch-off, the Royal Farms located at 8803 Philadelphia Road (21237) earns a $500 bonus from the Maryland Lottery.

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