BALTIMORE (June 15, 2016)—So much time had passed since Les Koslofsky and his wife picked a sequence of numbers to use when playing Lottery games that he didn't realize he'd won when he looked at results of a recent Powerball drawing. The collection of family birthdays brought home a $50,000 prize, which put the Southern Maryland couple into shock.
Les is a retired federal government employee who plays Maryland Lottery games frequently. "I enjoy all of them," he said, "I get tickets a couple of times a week." Years ago, the Hollywood resident and his wife combined their children's and grandchildren's birth dates to create a set of numbers to use whenever they play games. Happily for them, the 68-year-old grandfather put those numbers to use when he picked up a $4 ticket from Cook Liquors at 25765 Three Notch Road in Hollywood for the June 11 Powerball drawing.
"I checked the Lottery website Sunday morning to see how we'd done," Les said. "I recognized the last number right away, but the others didn't seem significant."
A second look parted the curtains in his memory and he recognized a birth date or two among the results. "It looked like a $50,000 win, but I had to be sure," he said. Les headed to a nearby Lottery retailer to confirm the win. After hearing the good news from the clerk there, the happy husband called home to tell his wife the good news. "I started with: 'Are you sitting down?'"
The couple spent the day talking and laughing about their win. They plan to use their Powerball prize to upgrade a trip they have coming up as well as tackle home repairs they've been contemplating.
Les was the only Marylander to win $50,000 and was one of a dozen players nationwide who did so in the June 11 drawing. No one won the jackpot, which rolled to $153 million for the Wednesday, June 15 drawing with a cash option of $103.4 million.