Are you a lucky cat?

Friday The Thirteen doesn’t always come up lucky but when it does, you win! John Martin of Maryland Lottery gets Nestor ready for some big winner stories, next week’s six lucky finalists for the Ravens Tickets For Life drawing and local Olympics glory in progress in Milan.

John Martin, Executive Director of the Maryland Lottery, discussed various promotions and winner stories. The Kino Team USA promotion ends on February 22, with five winners already announced, including Michael Matera, Bonnie Hyson, Jocelyn Johnson, Barbara Henderson, and a future winner. The 2025 Ravens tickets promotion will award one winner 20 years of season tickets on February 18. Martin also mentioned a $50,000 Powerball winner from Chevy Chase yet to claim their prize. New games like Cash Pop and Fast Play Fridays were highlighted, with Cash Pop offering four daily drawings. The conversation also touched on the Olympics and personal anecdotes.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Move next week’s show segment to Wednesday afternoon so the program can announce the winner from the M&T Bank Stadium award event
• [ ] Hold and conduct the award event at M&T Bank Stadium on Wednesday the 18th to select and award one of the six semi-finalists the 20-year Ravens season ticket prize, including coordinating winners’ attendance and on-site logistics (parking passes, etc.)
• [ ] Continue and manage the Kino Team USA promotion, accepting entries (winning and non-winning Kino tickets) through February 22 and administer the second-chance drawings
• [ ] Provide fresh scratch-off tickets to bring to the next meeting/segment (Maryland crab cake tour segment request)

Maryland Lottery Promotions and Olympics

• Nestor Aparicio introduces John Martin, Executive Director of the Maryland Lottery, and mentions the absence of football due to the pitchers and catchers reporting.
• John Martin discusses the Kino Team USA promotion, where players can enter their tickets by February 22 for a chance to win prizes.
• Nestor Aparicio and John Martin talk about the Olympics, with John mentioning that four out of five winners of the Kino Team USA promotion have already been announced.
• Nestor Aparicio humorously tries to guess the location of West River, Maryland, and shares his background as a high school sports reporter.

Ravens Tickets for Life Promotion

• John Martin announces the 2025 Ravens tickets promotion, where six semi-finalists will be awarded tickets for life.
• Nestor Aparicio and John Martin discuss the winners from the fall, including Sharon Kozlinski, Patricia Williams, Francine Trip Jones, Sean Stevens, Joyce Merson, and Cornell Tony.
• Nestor Aparicio suggests moving the segment to Wednesday afternoon to reveal the winner of the tickets for life.
• John Martin confirms that the winner will receive 20 years of tickets, including parking passes, and shares stories of past winners.

Maryland Lottery Winner Stories

• John Martin shares a story of a Tennessee man who won $100,000 in Powerball and had to call his brother in Maryland to verify the numbers.
• Nestor Aparicio and John Martin discuss the importance of not losing the winning ticket and the process of claiming prizes.
• John Martin mentions a $50,000 Powerball winner from Chevy Chase who has not yet claimed their prize.
• Nestor Aparicio and John Martin talk about the unclaimed prize fund and the importance of checking tickets regularly.

New Maryland Lottery Promotions

• John Martin introduces new promotions, including “Go for the Green” for higher price ticket players and “Fast Play Fridays” for a chance to win free fast play games.
• Nestor Aparicio and John Martin discuss the concept of fast play, which is a scratch-off without the mess.
• John Martin explains the “Cash Pop” game, which involves picking a number and wagering, with different chances for different prizes.
• Nestor Aparicio and John Martin talk about the upcoming home run riches promotion and the excitement around baseball season.

Personal Experiences and Final Thoughts

• Nestor Aparicio shares his experience of tobogganing at the Great Wall of China with Cal Ripken and John Martin.
• John Martin humorously mentions his fear of tobogganing and the possibility of calling 911 if he ever tries it.
• Nestor Aparicio talks about his wife’s interest in the Olympics and their shared enjoyment of watching the games.
• John Martin and Nestor Aparicio wrap up the segment, with John expressing his excitement for the upcoming baseball season and the potential for more home runs.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Maryland Lottery, Kino Team USA, Olympics promotion, West River Maryland, Ravens tickets, Powerball, unclaimed prizes, Fast Play Fridays, Cash Pop, home run riches, curling, Winter Olympics, ticket validation, community charity, Baltimore positive.

8

SPEAKERS

Speaker 1, Nestor Aparicio, John Martin

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. Shout it out here in Valentine’s Day week, we got no football this weekend and no football the next weekend, but pitchers and catchers have reported, which gives me time to talk sports with small sports buddies. He runs the Maryland lottery. He’s executive director of all things there. He joins us, usually every week, sometimes every other week. But finally, we’ve done football, and now we’re ready for baseball, and I know you got new games, and I’ll tell you what, from a sports perspective, people think I’m the sports guy in my house when the Dun dun dun dun dun, when that I lose my wife. My wife’s on the tablet, on the peacock. She’s on the television all night. I’m louging, I’m skating, I’m I’m sweeping, you know, because it’s the curling season, so I need that Olympics promotion out there. But you know, I enjoy watching my wife enjoy the Olympics, John, you know, everyone should

John Martin  00:59

enjoy the Olympics. And there are some people in the Maryland lottery, family, extended family, who enjoy more than others, as you are well aware, but not everyone, maybe who’s listening in on our shenanigans is aware that we have a wonderful promotion going on, a Kino Team USA promotion, where it will be still have a couple of weeks left. Enter between now and February 22 and you may be eligible on your winning or non winning Kino ticket.

Nestor Aparicio  01:27

8

I watch people play Keno at Costas on Friday I did the show cost us Timonium. You know the otbs there people always play Keno there. So I hope somebody wins from

John Martin  01:35

Timonium well, and if you don’t win on the game itself, you can enter your tickets in for a second chance drawing, and you can be one of five, and we have awarded four of the five lucky winners to actually go to Los Angeles for the 2028, Summer Olympics. And welcome to the party. Michael Matera of Here you go. You ready? We’re in the world. Nestor, are you ready? Go ahead. West River, Maryland,

Nestor Aparicio  02:03

I’m thinking that might be like near South River, but that’s I’m just I’m lost. No, I look up West River.

John Martin  02:09

Don’t start throwing new new cities in this West river Maryland. But go ahead, do that thing that

8

Nestor Aparicio  02:13

you do. Do the thing that I do. All right, I want to do the thing that I do and figure out where West river Maryland is.

John Martin  02:18

And while you’re finding West river Maryland, I will announce that in addition to Mike Matera, Bonnie Hyson from Pasadena and Jocelyn Johnson from Fort Washington and Barbara Henderson from aspen hill, those four will welcome one new winner in a couple weeks to go to the Los Angeles games. So where in the world is West river Maryland.

Nestor Aparicio  02:41

West river Maryland is exactly where I thought it was. It’s right near South River, which was Harwood, Maryland, which is just south of Annapolis, sort of east of northeast of Upper Marlboro. It’s literally exactly where I thought it was going to be. But that was a, it’s a big state, and that was a dumb guess, John. And here’s, you don’t know this about me, because, well, Seth was an old Seth was an old newspaper reporter back in the day. So I can tell him this. I was a high school I covered high school boys and girls sports in the late 1980s and there were two southern high schools. There was one in Baltimore, and there was one southern of Harwood. And I used to have to get out the map, and it’s Harwood, West River. South River is the high school. Boom. Congratulations. Doesn’t matter you’re going up to the airport, because it’s going to Olympics, right? Yeah, I like the Summer Olympics better than the Olympic Winter Olympics as a spectator, I wrote this week that I think curling should become a beach sport, and they should put a sheet of ice out on the beach, because they serve beer. And it looks like a fun thing, but it looks why don’t they just get a slip and slide? Here’s the deal. If you’re from Duluth, Minnesota, and I listen, I love curling. I go through this every single year. I go through how much I love curling. It’s cold outside. Why do you want a sport inside that has a sheet of ice? I did this. I don’t understand sweeping, drinking, playing the big disc thing they have there, but I do love the Olympics, and my wife loves it too. As long as we beat Sweden and Canada, I like it better.

John Martin  04:17

8

You know what we’re talking about, Olympics. But before we close the book, I know you try to close it before on the on the 2025, football season, we are finally awarding our 20 years of Raven’s tickets. And we will do that next Wednesday the 18th, we will be awarding one of our six semi finalists to MIT Bank Stadium.

Nestor Aparicio  04:42

So is it one winner a month for six months kind of, sort of, and these are the winners from back in

John Martin  04:47

the fall. Yeah. Sharon kozlinski of White Marsh was our first winner. Now I’m compelled to do this now. Patricia Williams of Baltimore was a semi finalist. Francine trip Jones. Laurel. We have Sean Stevens from Windsor mill, and we also have, then Joyce Merson from Pasadena and Cornell Tony of Bowie. Those six folks will join us at MIT Bank Stadium next Wednesday the 18th, and one of those lucky people will win season tickets for 20 years the new Jesse Minter regime.

Nestor Aparicio  05:23

We need to move next week’s segment until Wednesday afternoon then. I mean, I need to know who the winner is, right? I mean, I think that’s only fair, right?

8

John Martin  05:30

We could Sure, sure, if you think that’s going to help. So what

Nestor Aparicio  05:33

do they win? They win tickets for life. They’ve won a lot of money already, right? They’ve already won $10,000 in cash. Hope you’ve spent it already. Well, I, you know, who knows? Who knows what they’ve done with it? Well, they need more. They don’t win more money, though. They win tickets for life, right, correct?

John Martin  05:48

No, they win 20 years of tickets and all the things that go with that, like parking pass.

Nestor Aparicio  05:54

8

I’ve met these people that have won, like the guy a couple years ago takes his daughter, it’s, it’s a beautiful thing. So, and, you know, we got Lamar and we got Jesse Minter, and things are good. John Martin, we got him as well. He’s the Executive Director of all things Maryland lottery gaming. I want to send a shout out to John and everybody to Maryland lottery, putting us up for a cup of Super Bowl. Last week, we did 32 individual community charity stories. So many things that came home. I wind up telling my wife about it at dinner, and I wind up getting a little little sniffly, because I think we’re helping some people out. And there’s a lot of people out there doing great things in Baltimore, and I just want to shout that out and let people know the great things are going on, John, I know you guys great things going on too, because you have winner stories. And we mentioned these six folks that are going to come down, and their friends are going to be involved, and whoever wins going to be exciting for them. But it’s always exciting to win. And I know this because last week at Koco’s, I had a spate of tickets I handed out, and people, they did not download the Maryland app the way they should, and they looked at me with need. They Yes, you check my ticket for me. And I’m like, Yeah, I have a zapper if I’m AI NSD AI, and I boom, and I had had a couple of, sorry, you’re not a winner. Play second chance. But I had a $20 confetti, nice. I had a $3 look. The $3 confetti felt to me. I didn’t win. The money felt as good to me, but it’s a lot of fun. I just want to tell people, when you get these. I tell I show people every week. I’m like, This is the fun part. Like, you don’t scratch and say, Do I think I won? Let me I want to you actually go, boom. And it goes, You’re a winner. And there is a vibe about that that even I like and I don’t win a nickel.

John Martin  07:34

Yes, yes. You know, we have some interesting conversations around here that, yeah, sometimes we just don’t make it easy enough for winners. So and you get these stories at MD lottery.com if you’re so inclined to to share in the human experience of it. For instance, you may read the story of a Tennessee man who was visiting family over the holidays bought a Powerball ticket. You may recall the Powerball jackpot was won on Christmas Eve, at $1.8 billion in our Christmas Happy New Year.

Nestor Aparicio  08:06

Happy go to Maui is what I would be doing. So

John Martin  08:08

so he says to himself, self, he says, I’m going to get me one of those tickets. So he gets a ticket. Of course, he did not win the $1.8 billion but he did win $100,000 and that’s the end of the story. But you backed up a little bit. He didn’t know if he’d won or not, so he went back to Tennessee, calls his brother, who’s in Maryland, and says, Hey, can you tell me what the Powerball ticket numbers were? Well, Powerball is a national game, so the numbers in Maryland are the same that they are in Tennessee and 46 other jurisdictions around the country. So but his brother obliged and told him what the numbers were in Maryland. And he looked at his ticket and said, Hmm, I think I won. And he did. He won $100,000 because he won four of the five white balls plus the red ball. He was just one little number off there.

8

Nestor Aparicio  09:03

Well, I don’t know he wasn’t watching at the moment or anything like the way we used to. It’s like, Oh, you just get the ticket. You’re like, so, so he, so he, he’s in Tennessee. He’s got $100,000 ticket. He has to bring, you, don’t want to mail that right up here to his brother, right? Like, how did he, how do you collect that? He has to get a plane come back up and collect it, right? Like, collect it, right? Like he’s gonna see you, literally, right? If you’re gonna win $100,000

John Martin  09:26

you can probably put a few 100 bucks aside.

Nestor Aparicio  09:29

I got it. I’m just saying like that. He’s gonna have to come back up, and that’s the way it works. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I know you. And if I want 100,000 I’d have to come see you, right? You have to come down to the odds no matter what. Right?

John Martin  09:39

8

You know what? Now that you say that, I suppose he could have sent it in the mail with the documentation. I don’t know that. I would trust that.

Nestor Aparicio  09:48

Yeah, yeah. We don’t mail off the winning Willy Wonka ticket. You got the gold ticket?

John Martin  09:54

You that has happened in the annals of Maryland lottery and gaming history. I think, I think the big prize I. It. I don’t know if it’s a million dollars. It was a big price. Yep, yep, yep. And of course, that

Nestor Aparicio  10:07

is a nervous couple of days. John Martin, that’s not because, like, I’ve always thought there’s only one ticky, man, if you don’t have the ticky you’re not getting the money right. I mean, like, literally, don’t destroy the ticket. It’s like, you should say that on all of it, make sure you don’t mess things up on the ticket, because here’s

8

John Martin  10:24

a public service announcement. To that very point, here’s a public service announcement. Earlier this week, there was a $50,000 winner in Powerball that, as we speak, has not come forward yet, which is still fine. We’re still within a week, you have 182 days to claim a winning ticket. But this was a purchase made at the giant food store on Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase. So if you were shopping there at the giant food store on Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase and bought a Powerball ticket on February 9, you may have won $50,000 please stop by see me.

Nestor Aparicio  10:59

That’s not unusual. Somebody to win to, like, sit on the money for a couple days, figure it out, right? You want people to do that really, right?

John Martin  11:06

It’s funny, there was kind of a tipping point, couple days, not a problem. It gets to be a couple months, about three, four months, and we start to get and then, unfortunately, some people never claim that, and that money goes back into what we call the unclaimed prize fund,

Nestor Aparicio  11:21

8

and that goes to Nestor, right?

John Martin  11:24

No, unfortunately, it does go back to other players in terms of promotions.

Nestor Aparicio  11:29

And it’s a lot of money, though, right? It’s substantial unclaimed prizes, right? Over the course

John Martin  11:33

of a year? Yeah, it can, it can be substantial. But go to MD lottery.com, and you’ll see some of the new promotions coming out, something called go for the green which is really focused on our players, who prefer the higher price tickets. But that’s a special promotion where they can win a book of tickets as well as cash money. We started something new last year. We liked it. We’re going to stick with it. It’s called fast play Fridays, where you can buy a fast play ticket, any $5 fast play ticket on Fridays in February, and get a chance to win a free fast play game.

8

Nestor Aparicio  12:07

Fast play, by the way, is a scratch off without the schmutz. Is that good? Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

John Martin  12:13

You know we were cutting this down. You know, we do a few 100 more of these things. I think we’re going to be smooth.

Nestor Aparicio  12:18

It’s finally coming together. I think it is here. I mean, I know more about the lottery than I ever knew. And when I am out and the tickets have people asked me, and I did quote you perfectly. I said, if you win, you have 182 days to cash that ticket, because somebody did win at Koco’s. And I said, you have, how long do I have 182 days? So I’ve learned a little bit of the verbiage I’m trying to teach me what? But fast play. Fast play. We love fast we

John Martin  12:44

8

try to have some fun with February or Friday the 13th. And we are fortunate this year. Spoiler alert, we got one coming up and another one in March. So on, both things get worse. I mean,

Nestor Aparicio  12:58

good things get worse. It’s Friday the 13th. I mean, come on, let’s turn things around here. Listen, brothers, turn

John Martin  13:07

there’s a weird thing that goes on in a lottery players mind. They turn those things into opportunities. You play any terminal game on Friday, February 13 and March, February or March 13, and you could win a five or $10 instant win Cash Coupon. So any terminal game, go to our 4300 lottery retailers, and you may win cash money. If you win, it says

Nestor Aparicio  13:31

you get like, a like, a little black crow on your ticket here. Hey, by the way, cash pop, I don’t think we’ve talked about cash pop in months, and it’s really your newest game, right? And I saw it pop up here, and it’s got a cool, like, sort of bubble gum looking logo. It’s kind of cool. Looks like a cash pop, but that’s really, like, I almost said it’s sort of like a game you’d play at at the carnival. It’s only a couple of numbers, right? It’s like, spin the wheel, couple of numbers, right?

8

John Martin  13:58

Exactly, exactly it. You can check out the details at MD lottery.com but there are four drawings a day, and they are spaced out throughout the day. And you pick a number from one to 15. There are only 15 numbers eligible. And you also pick how much you want to wager on that ticket. You know, a buck, five bucks, 10 bucks, whatever. And each ticket will give you a different chance for a different prize. So you may pick number four and have a chance to win $5 I may pick number four and have a chance to win $10 but that’s the variability of it. So it’s fun game. It is does very, very well with people who who like things like Kino and race tracks and some of those games, as well as our fast play games. But cash pop, look for it at any of the 4300 lottery retailers around the state of Maryland. All right.

Nestor Aparicio  14:45

Is this the point where you’re going to tell me that we’re going to have a home run riches, and it’s going to be better than ever, and we’re going to hit more home runs than ever, and all that stuff? Because I You gotta, it’s you’re rolling this out soon, right? Because, I mean, pitchers and catchers have and listen, I should tell you even more. Because, like, the Cleveland guardians haven’t won any more recently than the Baltimore oils. We’re all struggling here, right? Hey, hey, I’m on 43 years here. How many years are you on? I don’t can’t get that high. It doesn’t happen in my lifetime. Was 4048 maybe. What year was it?

John Martin  15:16

1948 a wonderful year or so. My family tells me

Nestor Aparicio  15:21

8

I didn’t look that up. That’s just my baseball knob. So look, I want it for you, but you know, I want it for me. So home run watch is here. We’re gonna hit some home runs this year. One thing for sure, the day that they signed Pete Alonso, you John Martin, Executive Director of Marilyn laundry game, knew you’re going to be having to give more money out, you know that, right? I hope you figured we’re gonna hit more home runs this year we hit last year. We are,

John Martin  15:46

well, that remains to be seen, and we would more be more than happy to pay out on home run riches. You know what? I don’t know that the ink is dry on the, on the, on the

Speaker 1  15:57

All right, all right. All right. All right. Teasing a little bit time. We got some time. But when, when we

Nestor Aparicio  16:04

just ended, let’s take a breather for a week or two, and then we’ll get into the baseball. Do some curling. Do some curling. I’m sweeping, you know, the luge and all of that. And my wife’s watching all this Italian things over there, and now she wants to go to Italy with her dad. And I’m like, rivaderci, you know, get a cappuccino. You know, go do it. So John Martin is here. He is trying to sing.

8

John Martin  16:25

Is nuts. What’s that thing? Is nuts.

Nestor Aparicio  16:30

I have written a toboggan once in my life. And this is God. God’s as my witness. I did it with Cal Ripken and John maroon and Rick mace, formerly of the Washington Post. We were at the top of the Great Wall of China and Montaigne, and we we went to the top. And the way to get down, you could walk down, which, you know, take a couple hours, or you can take the toboggan, and it’s like a luge, but it was more like a, like a roller coaster that you controlled with a with a break. And it was really neat. Oh, I video. You can watch it on YouTube. It’s pretty cool. Or, if you were in

John Martin  17:06

one, or you hit each, had your own, you there were four.

Nestor Aparicio  17:10

8

There were two people on each toboggan, or, and, yeah, I think two or four, two man, I think. But it wasn’t ice. It was more like a, like a ramp, like a, like a water slide without the water kind of, sort of, but, I mean, I’m talking from the Great Wall of China. I’m not talking about from round top or Liberty here. I’m talking about, like, this ride went on for seven minutes getting down to the bottom, you know, and we didn’t go that fast, but that’s the only time in my life I have been in that sort of perch position where you’re going down, and you’re sort of, you have the break, and then I see these people going 78 miles an hour flat on their back, and they have the little gloves. I don’t know the Winter Olympics are so weird, because other than ice skating and a few, most of us have never done it. So I mean, I went to Norway in 1998 during the Olympics, the Nagano Olympics, and the whole country was shut down with cross country skiing, because it’s the biggest sport in Norway. And I distinctly remember being in Oslo, and I went out to Lillehammer and tried to cross country ski, John, I didn’t make it from me to you. I didn’t make it to the dry I made it closer getting out of the driveway two weeks ago. Like, these are really weird, hard sports, and they’re coal, but they’re warm on TV, and that’s why I like it. We have winners over there, right? Like from Maryland. We have winners in Italy right now, right?

John Martin  18:34

We had people, three sets of winners, a winner, and their guests went to Milan. And I believe they may be back now. They wasn’t, well, the luge

Nestor Aparicio  18:45

has no audience. It was sort of

John Martin  18:48

like, goes by seven, eight miles an hour,

8

Nestor Aparicio  18:51

but they do it inside of this, like shed thing, where I see a few humans, it looks like you’re going and anybody that’s been to Disney World would know it looks like you’re going through Space Mountain like through, there’s no people, but just flying through. I would think, for the folks that went over the ice hockey, the ladies hockey, they’re having some amazing experiences, right?

John Martin  19:11

Yeah, I will leave you with this if at any point you see me flat on my back with little gloves, careening down an ice toboggan. Shoot. Call 911, because something horrible has happened.

Nestor Aparicio  19:23

No. It means you’re having a good time. It means you’re living your best life. Is what it means. Well, I don’t know about that. John Martin is here. He’s executive director of all things Maryland lottery and gaming. I want fresh scratch offs the next time we get together for the Maryland crab cake tour. Not in progress right now. I’m still getting everything out from a cup of Super Bowl. We did hours and hours of radio last week and podcast and video all about some of the most amazing people doing incredible work in Baltimore. So my thanks to the Maryland louder. My thanks to GBMC for putting us out on the road. My thanks to the candy cane cash for being a really lucky batch, because I got a lot of confetti when I used them last week at our five locations. John. Maybe home run riches next week, if not more Olympics next week. But at some point, baseball seasons right over six weeks away from opening day, they open in March. Now, so it’s fun for you and me. We are all set. I’ll have my baseball preview with John Martin next week. I am Nestor. We are W NST am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive.