Huge jackpots and Home Run Riches ready for Birds fans

While the big jackpots soar, John Martin of The Maryland Lottery tells Nestor about Home Run Riches contest to start baseball season.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

maryland, jackpots, winners, tickets, march, people, john, home, year, cavaliers, week, win, baseball, team, wagering, sports wagering, game, lottery, points, month

SPEAKERS

John Martin, Nestor J. Aparicio

Nestor J. Aparicio  00:01

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Welcome home we are W NSGA and 5070 tasks in Baltimore. We’re getting the Maryland at crabcake tour back out on the road in early April. Are they date set for Coco’s got a date set for Costas and a September trying to drive home to everyone now baseball season right around the corner. Get back down to Camden Yards we will be at fade Lee’s each and every Friday live from two to five. So brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. I’ll have these 10 times the cash tickets to give away at least in the early going. And then of course, we’re donation our friends at Jiffy Lube and our newest sponsor Liberty pure solutions bringing me fresh water. This guy brings me fresh winners each and every week, and jackpots that have swelled and Problem Gambling Awareness Month as well. We have a lot of things going on. He is the executive director of all things Maryland lottery and gaming. He joins us not every week, but most weeks. He’s joining us this week. What’s going on? John, Mark, you have told me that you have just many many momentous things to tell our audience this week. Absolutely.

John Martin  00:59

You know, I’m going to talk faster than I normally do but I gotta lead with this. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I realized this is be more positive and all that but it’s that for those folks who may have watched the NBA last night

Nestor J. Aparicio  01:13

you know, you have that on your desk all the time. This this Cavaliers thing you still have this?

John Martin  01:17

I do I do have plenty of these at my disposal. There’s there’s a lot going on here. Hey, I want to

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Nestor J. Aparicio  01:22

say this about the Cavaliers. Let’s say this. They’re the only ones that have ever brought Cleveland like the thing that you know that matters. So the fact that they’re number one in your heart and LeBrons you know one a with a bullet. I’m okay with that.

John Martin  01:34

Very briefly last night was Kelsey brothers bobblehead night. Why that you say the Kelsey brothers are from Cleveland, Ohio. They sat courtside they had the little bobble heads. They’re wearing their Cavaliers jerseys. They brought the Kelsey magic down 22 points. Did you hear I just said Nestor down 22 points in the fourth quarter to the Boston Celtics. Who are the best team in the East direct SPOILER ALERT 1051 or four Cavaliers victory Dean Wade not Dwayne Wade. Dean weighed scores 20 points in the fourth quarter the Celtics team scored 17

Nestor J. Aparicio  02:12

It’s a problem with the NBA can’t get too worked up about a regular game John

John Martin  02:18

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All right, this is what you want it this is what you want it anyway you ready for this one?

Nestor J. Aparicio  02:20

wretches. Oh my goodness. So today’s the day that

John Martin  02:24

we are taking the wraps off Nestor. We are taking the rap song from Ron Rich’s return I was

Nestor J. Aparicio  02:30

told was like, remember Alan Ludden used to play password. What’s the password? Yeah, if I was told that the password was grand slam. That’s what I was told. That’s not true. For

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John Martin  02:43

those folks who, for some reason may have not been paying attention for the last few years. homerun riches is an annual rite of passage here with the with the baseball season starting except the team’s not

Nestor J. Aparicio  02:53

usually this good. Well, really, I mean, when we’re on sports, the teams usually not this good.

John Martin  03:00

This year for you, John? Yep, yep, yep. So anyone who purchases a home or enriches bases loaded, fast play ticket to enter those tickets into our drawing. We draw winners every month and we’ll be starting at the end of March we’ll be drawing winners for each of the 162 games. A winner selected you are the fan of the game the contestant the game, you win $500 Should the Orioles hit a homerun or for every homerun they hit in that game, you win an additional $500. And this year, should that homerun be with the bags juiced a Grand Slam. You win $5,000. So ask me the logical question. So because I know you’re a reporter, your investigator asked me the logical question. Go

Nestor J. Aparicio  03:45

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ahead. So it’s like the fifth game of the year and I’m the contestant and the Orioles hit five home runs in that game. And one of MAVs to be grand slam you win like $7,000. Right like it’s that’s the way this is working this year. Correct?

John Martin  03:58

Yeah, I guess I mean, I didn’t know there’s gonna be math involved this morning. Well, I don’t have the logical

Nestor J. Aparicio  04:02

question. I’m behind you today is how many Grand

John Martin  04:04

Slams Did they hit? In a year? Last year last year? I haven’t here. Is it eight?

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Nestor J. Aparicio  04:12

What’s the number? Wow, that

John Martin  04:14

was very good. Very good. It’s not right. But it’s very good. Six, okay, six grand slams last year, who was the best team in baseball last year at Grand Slams Nestor I know you’d love to play these little games go. Who wasn’t?

Nestor J. Aparicio  04:26

The Baltimore Orioles?

John Martin  04:28

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No, I just said they had six.

Nestor J. Aparicio  04:29

Oh, who knows? I don’t know.

John Martin  04:31

I love it. The number was 11. It was the West Coast. It was the city of angels. The Los Angeles Dodgers.

Nestor J. Aparicio  04:37

They just tried to pick a good team. That’s all it was. Absolutely,

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John Martin  04:41

absolutely. So but

Nestor J. Aparicio  04:44

Western baseball training yet.

John Martin  04:46

I’m gonna put regular in the decaf pot this morning. That’s all I can tell you.

Nestor J. Aparicio  04:51

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Just trying to listen man. This has been a long, long march for me and it’s already early March. And it’s the first

John Martin  04:58

week of March.

Nestor J. Aparicio  04:59

I I’m just trying to get my arms around the fact that we have new ownership coming in. I’m trying to understand it. I’m trying to figure out my role. I’m trying to figure out what fans want to know what they really want to know. They want to know, like Corbin Burns is starting on opening day and they want to know that there’s gonna be a parade here at some point. Like, nobody’s crazy that it has to happen this year just has to happen soon.

John Martin  05:21

Here’s a lottery. Here’s what lottery fans want to know who’s going to win that $687 million megamillions jam. My

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Nestor J. Aparicio  05:29

wife thought it was her. We pulled up in front of royal farms Three nights ago because she knows all about your little jackpots. They’re not little anymore, though. I mean, this is not, you know, how often do you get to a half a billion on both sides? How often does that happen?

John Martin  05:44

You know what it happened once, maybe a year ago where they both got real, real fat real fast, and we may be there knock on wood. Right? We may be there again, where it’s 687 as we speak on the Mega 485 on the Powerball. But little fun facts for Mega Millions, you know, marches is is madness anyway, but the month of March is very good to megamillions and especially here in the state of Maryland, was Ilona coning happened, not loan accounting. This was the very first for me in my lottery career here in Maryland, a $656 million, march 30 of 2012. Jackpot shared Illinois, Kansas and Maryland.

Nestor J. Aparicio  06:31

So the Maryland post to get like 200 million of that ish, Maryland

John Martin  06:35

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team. They were the three amigos that showed up educators within the state of Maryland, and they pooled their monies together. And they shared at that time, it was the world record jackpot in 2012 656 was the world record in 2012. And today, we’ve already crossed the $2 billion threshold just to show you in 12 years, how the migratory path of jackpots have have gone here and here in the United States, so they’re

Nestor J. Aparicio  07:08

happy with their retirement, right? I mean, they all they all got 6070 80 million and then some taxes and like got it. Okay. They did. I did. Okay,

John Martin  07:16

they done good. They done good. So that was that was happening. And yeah, stay tuned. Late Breaking News. We’ll have updates as they become available. But that’s a lot of money. It’s over one point nearly $1.2 billion in jackpots

Nestor J. Aparicio  07:32

it’s getting there it’s getting there this week, and I just hope it’s not California, Minnesota like my wife always thinks it is. John Martin is here EC executive director of all things Maryland lottery, you are full of information here. So the homerun riches. The contest that’s going on this year, it’s happening every single game, when do you start to pull for like opening days, like three weeks from now, like you got to get out quickly, right, the

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John Martin  07:54

tickets are out there, people can go to MD lottery.com and get the deets as the kids say get the details on it. But you if you’re listening to the sound of my voice, purchase a ticket you enter into the pool of available players we will select at the end of March for basically the month of April. So beginning of the season in March and through April and then every month we kind of play it forward for the next 2530 games at a time so

Nestor J. Aparicio  08:23

there’s no tickets for life there’s no we’re getting on the plane with the origin none of that happens.

John Martin  08:28

There’s no just cash just good old fashioned cash cash money on these cash.

Nestor J. Aparicio  08:34

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There’s no question about that cash is king. Yeah,

John Martin  08:36

as well as playing the fun game homerun riches itself it’s a progressive jackpot game of $5 ticket as we speak that progressive jackpot is nearly $42,000 But that can get up there.

Nestor J. Aparicio  08:47

And that’s a big number. Hold on. So if you play that’s the progressive 22 So it’ll get over 100,000 Quickly somebody’s in hit a quick right

John Martin  08:54

it’ll take a little time but yeah, it can. It can get over slower than that. Okay, yep, yeah, picking up over 100 grand Yeah, it doesn’t doesn’t crush as fast as the Mega Millions and Powerball do this is just local, it’s just Maryland and it’s percent of every ticket goes into the end of the progressive checkmate. You

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Nestor J. Aparicio  09:12

will get more Barbra Jean from last summer back on the show getting excited about these home because we’re gonna have a lot of home runs here. Even though they moved the fence back I keep going through that with you other things that are happening springtime I know you guys like sort of get out in the community a little bit like that we started like festival start happening and spring is sprung. My wife started showing me the trees that were budding you know on the side of the road and I’m like sure alright, so spring is getting here so I know you guys are doing stuff. I’m doing stuff I’m gonna be out crabcake torn in April, I’m sure rent a ballpark yet things happen in the summer, right spring.

John Martin  09:44

You know, spring people think about their homes and their gardens. And if you’d like come on out and see me at the Home and Garden Show at the Timonium fairgrounds this weekend will be unreal. You can spin the wheel win a prize, get a photo op with me. I just do that Didn’t nobody wants to follow up with me. But you know, sometimes

Nestor J. Aparicio  10:02

I like, you know, yeah,

John Martin  10:04

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well come on out and get and get your picture taken. So, Saturday, I’m sorry, Friday, the eighth, Saturday, the ninth Sunday the 10th. And I’ll be out there Saturday. So they’re fun.

Nestor J. Aparicio  10:15

They’re good. They’re fantastic families out with that. I’ve signed books before on behalf of a client at the home ago after I wrote Purple Rain once a little while ago, but I have a home and a garden now. So like, I lived in the sky for 20 years. So I need to come join you this weekend.

John Martin  10:29

You know what else I know you enjoy and you have you have an appetite for beer, bourbon and barbecue, don’t you?

Nestor J. Aparicio  10:36

Every day on my life? How did you know? Yeah, because

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John Martin  10:39

the march 22 and 23rd will be out in the community again. And no surprise here back at the Timonium fairgrounds. And you can come out and visit us at the 17th annual beer bourbon and barbecue festival.

Nestor J. Aparicio  10:54

I’m a man of Baltimore. You know this, John, I’ve attended this event with Greg Evans and the folks over there. So they do a great, great job. So you’re getting things on my right. I’m actually Florida that weekend. But I mean, I’m getting things on my read my wife so she’ll go over there. She loves all three of the above too.

John Martin  11:09

Yep, yep. Yep. And then, again, the final tease for the month of March. The O’s welcome the Los Angeles Angels on March 28. And we will be there at a park den prize wheel. Lots of fun. So yeah, we got lots going on the

Nestor J. Aparicio  11:28

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opening day, can I ask you that just as a as a human as a Baltimorean. Near You

John Martin  11:33

know what I am not probably personally going but certainly will be there. We enjoy the the the promise and the thrills and the excitement of opening day. But personally, I will not be there.

Nestor J. Aparicio  11:43

I’ve never seen the city more excited about opening day. And you know, I’ll say this, because it’ll lead into our March theme here with things we need to talk about just things you, you know, you want to talk about at this point, a little slower. And I saw the numbers come out in February for the month of February for for of sports wagering, and this is something we weren’t talking about 234 or five years ago. But as we get up on this, I know you want to let everyone know about the month of March, not just because of basketball, but also baseball is coming on baseball is coming back. And baseball is something that those who have started to gamble on baseball in the last year, year and a half has come online. You know, I know you want people to take this thing easy take their, their their role, slow as it were, because it can be I didn’t understand gambling on baseball. Now I understand that a little bit more. And it can be fun. But just be careful with it. Like

John Martin  12:37

any endeavor where you’re parting with your money, understand it, whether it’s sports wagering, investment opportunities, you know, buying food, whatever it is, make sure you’re making an informed decision. You understand the game, you understand the odds, if you’re not familiar with baseball, don’t get in too far too deep. You know, observe, watch, understand. And yeah, it can be a lot of fun. And one of the things and I’m glad he gave me a little bit of door open here, one of the things we look at here is not just the regulatory aspect after the fact, you know, what happens when it’s too late is really getting out in front of it. And whether it’s education, awareness, whatever. And I’m very proud to announce that very recently, about a week or two ago, based on actions and other jurisdictions, we made a commitment in Maryland to work with the NCAA work with college athletes and a big concern around the country and sports wagering is not only college students, wagering getting over their heads, but the burden it puts on athletes for things like prop bets, you know, will this player score 25 points. And at a college level, that’s a lot of pressure to put on young men and women. And so we follow the lead of Ohio and some other states, and basically told all of our operators, you know, what, in the month of March, and forever until Otherwise, do not put out prop bets on individual NCAA student athletes, it’s just not fair to them. It sets them up for a lot of harassment and problems. And you don’t need it. Go ahead and maintain the the policies and procedures for the game. It’s okay to bet the Terps but not an individual player. And I’m proud of the quick reactions we had not only here, but with our sports wagering partners. And so as of March 1, you can no longer in the state of Maryland make any proper bets on an individual for any college athletics and that’s just being responsible. That’s just being smart. That’s just being fair, not only to the players themselves, but but to people want to participate in sports wagering,

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Nestor J. Aparicio  14:47

you know, John, I’m not a gambler. We talk about this all the time, right. But I would just say I see things in front of me all the time. And I’m like, how can they take a bet on that or like, you know, where’s the sanctioning? On who becomes the first pick of this draft? Or things that have a finite answer to some degree, or whether Lamar was gonna stay a raven or wind up somewhere else where it’s a decision, not a game of play, or a game of chance, or an officiated game, or balls and strikes or whatever it would be, I don’t even know parameters for any of that as to betting on who can win an Oscar who can win a Grammy. But but, I mean, it’s a little bit of Pandora’s box, I don’t even know if you know the answer. So I don’t want to put you on the spot for that. But when a casino says we’re going to take numbers on the game, but not on the players, that’s a that’s a big thing that happened there, because I hadn’t really thought about that. But I started to think about what what are the limits on what casinos could take action on in regard to what is a sporting event? Or what is a proposition?

John Martin  15:55

Yeah, unfortunately, we’ve got a great relationship with all the operators AND, and our team here does a great job as well, in having those conversations and being transparent. And I think anymore, a lot of it is, you know, looking over the fence, what are the other guys doing? What’s the industry doing, as I referenced in this most recent decision on on student athletes. So you get a pretty good handle on when you’re working with big players, not to single them out. But you know, the betmgm is the FanDuel to Draft Kings of the world. They know by now what’s what’s in and what’s outside the lines, and

Nestor J. Aparicio  16:27

they need this thing to be on the up and up?

John Martin  16:31

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Absolutely, yeah. Where it gets maybe a little squirrely is when you get and then again, I’m not gonna mention anyone by name. But if you get somebody who’s maybe out on the periphery of that, who isn’t a mainstream and clue they’re trying to get some attention, or they’re offering something that we can do, yeah, then he gets it. Well, you know what, that’s that’s just not, that’s just not going to work here. But, you know, that’s, that’s what the regulator does, you know, we have to keep things within the lines, we don’t pass judgment on the you know, whether you as a as a player perspective, sports wager, should do it. We just say, be educated, understand, have a plan. And we’ll keep it within the guidelines, the guardrail is up as best we can. And if there’s an issue, someone wants to challenge it, then then we’ll we’ll look at it and make the call.

Nestor J. Aparicio  17:14

You know, if I get Pat scary on or, you know, or I go over to Kopan, you know, one of our partners, and just talk to them about these young at student athletes that you got some freshmen is 18 years old, and you’re putting it over under number on how many points are going to score that night. That’s just, I, I hadn’t really thought about that. She brought it up five minutes ago, but I think everybody in our audience would say that’s, you know, I wouldn’t want that to be my son or daughter. In this case. John Martin is here, Executive Director of all things, Maryland lottery game gaming, we talked about Problem Gambling Awareness month in March, and you want everybody to be in on this, making call making call on behalf of someone else getting involved, if you can, with a friend with a loved one. But also, they’re professionals that handle this, right. And if you’re someone that thinks you have a problem, or in this last year, you’ve sort of slow played yourself into wagering too much in certain circumstances, you make this call what happens when you make that call? John? Yeah, you

John Martin  18:11

call one 800 gambler. And that’s a 24/7. Hotline. Again, this we talked briefly last time, it’s not operated by the lottery, it’s operated independently. And it’s a network you know, there, there are most states are using the same number. Some states for whatever reasons may have a different number. But each state has some number to call. And you get you get a friendly voice. You get someone there who, who understands what the issues are, perhaps you even speak with someone it’s called a peer to peer counselor, who has been in a similar situation can explain how to get a handle on it, and come out the other side and hopefully be in a better position. But these people do wonderful work. And I’m sure they wish there were more of them. I’m sure that the need the demand exceeds the resources. But sometimes it’s just having somebody else to speak to that can can provide resources, whether it’s assistance support anything to to get them back on track. And as I said the other day it’s not that these folks are anti gambling know that that’s not they’re not going to

Nestor J. Aparicio  19:24

these people weren’t gamblers right like that. Absolutely. were formed and can help people right yeah, they

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John Martin  19:30

can they key is responsible play. Now, that’s, you know, clearly as a self determined, right, you’re responsible play may be different than mine may be different than somebody else down down the block. For some people, maybe it’s, you know, $50 a week. For some people, maybe it’s you know, $5,000 a week because they’ve got the wherewithal and they can budget for that. Whatever the parameters are, it has to work for you and we’re clearly gets upside down, is when people kind of fall off the on the straight and narrow and they’re there. They’re betting with money. They don’t have or they’re they’re they’re shorting themselves on rent and food and medications or other things, or they’re hiding it from spouses or loved ones. It’s affecting their work. They’re chasing losses, that you know that there are things that are pretty, pretty definitive and descriptive of behavior. And it’s, it’s a very different addiction than clearly an alcoholic diction or a drug addiction or something that’s visible to somebody walking down the street,

Nestor J. Aparicio  20:32

but just as debilitating in the cases that I’ve seen, for sure. Absolutely.

John Martin  20:36

Absolutely. Because you’re impacting sometimes, you know, families, sometimes businesses, you know, depending on who these people are, and have been in business, it may have a serious impact on the health of that business financially, if, if they’re really upside down on things. And you know, you’ve seen things in sports over the years. I mean, they are actually their thing is clearly the poster child. And that goes back.

Nestor J. Aparicio  20:58

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Name up this week, John, it’s crazy. You’d say that the Indianapolis Colts website hit me too. They’re doing a 40th anniversary thing about the team going there and his name came up the other day. So there you go. Second time for art this week, but not in a good way arts a little bit to your point you bring arch least dropped in this town about things you like will slow the roll here. We know that led to no nothing good. Yeah,

John Martin  21:24

no, absolutely. And a product of the Ohio State University. So again,

Nestor J. Aparicio  21:28

we want to bring that up to you guys are so excited about that Cavalier victory. Lastly, John Martin is here. He’s the Executive Director of all things. Maryland lottery game, gaming this month is Problem Gambling Awareness Month, make sure we’re you’re just make sure you’re doing the right thing and think of people around you that don’t want that to be good enough winners in Do we have any new games or we are I mean, homerun riches. What more can I ask for this week than you did done that gap already?

John Martin  21:51

We will close on this because again, you asked the question, if nothing else. We are fact based here at Maryland lottery gaming. You asked how many million dollar winners how many million dollar winners to have, you know, you throw

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Nestor J. Aparicio  22:03

that last week. So you did research. Okay. Research that. My wife said the other day was the big jackpot. I said, I said people want a million dollars, like almost I don’t see every week, but once or twice a month in this state. So I’m thinking because I get James Kennedy and Seth, your incredible team there. They send me over every week a thing and I’m trying to do their job. It’s what they know that and it’s my job to know things about this.

John Martin  22:36

So in fiscal 23, which went from July 1 22, to June 30 23,

Nestor J. Aparicio  22:41

how many million dollar winners? We had 133. All right, more than I thought, Okay, well,

John Martin  22:47

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that was across a spectrum of things. It was two people who won our cash for life top tier, which is $7 million prize. It’s one person who won a $5 million scratch off on our $50.50 years ticket. There are six people who also want scratch offs, typically $30 tickets of $2 million.

Nestor J. Aparicio  23:04

You just shrugged that off. Like, I mean, you could cost this right now and buy one of these $50 scratch offs, you have a better chance of winning a lot of money if you do it that way. If you’re that kind of gambler, as we discussed problem gambling, but if you’re that person, but you could scratch in the middle of Costas in the middle of roast beef melt and win $5 million. That that that’s the way this works. I

John Martin  23:29

would have gone for the crab cake myself, but that the roast beef melt is a wizard winner nonetheless. But yes, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, so that’s but now so for fiscal 24, which is the year were announced. So from July 1 23. Through today, almost

Nestor J. Aparicio  23:44

six months, almost six months. That’s five months. Hold on 33. Hold on hold on half 21.

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John Martin  23:54

I’ll give it to you. 20.

Nestor J. Aparicio  23:56

We’ve had one by one.

John Martin  23:57

All right, because somebody and I’ll give it to you because somebody could have just walked in. I don’t know. It’s just

Nestor J. Aparicio  24:02

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like you’re ahead of PACE is what you’re saying. You’re saying that there were 30. Last year, there could be at least 34 or more this year? We’ll see. We’ll see.

John Martin  24:11

I mean, we don’t control it. We’ve got you know, $1.2 billion worth of jackpots this weekend plus a $1.5 million multi match all of that at MD lottery.com. And

Nestor J. Aparicio  24:19

I see you as like Willy Wonka that you’re stuffing $5 million tick. There are there are $5 million million dollar tickets out there. So you have a lot of the tickets out there. So you just sort of know that somebody’s going to hit it. And you’re going to have more 33 winners this year. I think I think you know that.

John Martin  24:37

In the words of that legend Sergeant Schultz. I know nothing. All right. No thing. No thing. All right. Well, I

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Nestor J. Aparicio  24:45

hope you’re there to hand that $784 million. Check to that winner and I always say Rosedale, because that’s like saying that I don’t know why. Why garden Ville will have a different Ville kings.

John Martin  24:57

Rosedale is very fertile lottery land you’re not too far off. We have lots of winners in Rosedale.

Nestor J. Aparicio  25:03 I hope we have a million dollar winner on Rosedale. John Martin is here just giving money away to everybody he’s the executive director of all things Maryland lottery gaming working at the Maryland crabcake tour back out on the road it turns out my 10 times to cash it’s so this is so a January February tickets for me I now need to get on a home run right I need to get new tickets I’ve gotta go see Ross but we’re gonna be doing merely crabcake tour stops throughout April looking are disappearing later this month again to Florida the sun ourselves and and investigate new ownership at the baseball team. And maybe see Corbin burns pitch too and I haven’t been to a game in Fort Myers yet so trying to find reasons to go to Florida to meaningless spring training games. But I need to go to the Red Sox park down there see my mother in law so we’re going to be gone a little bit later in the month we will get this thing back out on the road. John we’re going to be a faithless on Fridays. Each every Friday there’s a home game we’re going to be people call me all the time he nears the going live no more. You don’t do live radio no more. While I’m going live two to five live two to five rooms fadeless. Friday live two to five with Luke Jones. That’s going to happen in baseball season because they’re under new ownership and we’re all giddy around here almost like John is about the Cavaliers. I am Nestor. We are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. And we never stopped talking Oriole baseball and the rejuvenation of the birds in Baltimore, Baltimore positive.