Feeling lucky for the holidays? Executive Director John Martin of The Maryland Lottery wraps up the Thankswinning season en route to million dollar holiday raffle excitement and special seasonal fun.
Nestor Aparicio and John Martin discussed the Maryland Lottery’s Thanksgiving promotions, including the $1 million holiday raffle with early bird drawings on December 8 and December 22. The first early bird winner won $50,000 from a 7-Eleven in Rockville. The final drawing is on January 2. They also highlighted the Thanksgiving Winning promotion offering $2 or $5 instant win coupons or free fast play tickets. Additionally, they mentioned the $681 million Powerball jackpot and the Jurassic Park Second Chance contest, which includes a trip to Hawaii. The conversation also touched on the Maryland Crab Cake Tour and the importance of responsible gaming.
- [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Provide Hawaii travel tips and recommendations to future Jurassic Park contest winners.
- [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Explore the possibility of allowing winners of the Ravens season ticket contest to spike the ball on the field.
- [ ] Promote the $1 million holiday raffle and its early bird drawings.
- [ ] Remind players to enter non-winning Jurassic Park scratch-off tickets into the My Lottery Rewards program for a chance to win the Hawaii trip.
- [ ] Emphasize the importance of responsible sports betting as the mobile platform approaches its 3rd anniversary.
Maryland Crab Cake Tour and Thanksgiving Plans
- Nestor Aparicio introduces the Maryland Crab Cake Tour, sponsored by the Maryland Lottery, and mentions upcoming events in December, including hosting duties in Canton and Honeys Bar and Grill in Halethorpe.
- Nestor discusses plans for the holidays, including crab cakes with Gina Shock and a visit to Costas.
- John Martin, Executive Director of the Maryland Lottery, joins the conversation and shares his Thanksgiving plans, mentioning his traditional pumpkin pie.
- Nestor and John engage in a light-hearted discussion about Thanksgiving traditions and family gatherings.
Thanksgiving Winning Promotions and Raffle Details
- Nestor and John discuss the Thanksgiving Winning promotions, including early bird drawings for the raffle.
- John explains the details of the raffle, including the $50,000 early bird winner and the final drawing for $1 million on January 2.
- Nestor reminisces about old-fashioned raffles and the excitement of winning.
- John highlights the best odds for winning $1 million at the Maryland Lottery and the upcoming early bird drawings on December 8 and December 22.
Seasonal Promotions and Scented Tickets
- Nestor and John talk about the Thanksgiving Winning promotion, which offers $2 or $5 instant win coupons or free fast play tickets.
- Nestor shares his excitement for scented tickets like Candy Cane Cash and Festive Fortune.
- John mentions the lineup of scratch-off tickets and fast play tickets available at Maryland Lottery retailers.
- Nestor and John discuss the fun of scented tickets and the importance of responsible gifting, especially for adults.
Jurassic Park Second Chance Contest and Powerball Jackpot
- John introduces the Jurassic Park Second Chance contest, which offers a trip to Hawaii and a chance to win up to $1 million in a live game show.
- Nestor shares his tips for enjoying Hawaii, including recommendations for shave ice and pineapple.
- John and Nestor discuss the current Powerball jackpot of $681 million and the potential for it to reach a billion dollars.
- John encourages players to check their Maryland Lottery app and visit retailers for updates on the jackpot.
Ravens Promotions and Sports Wagering Responsibility
- Nestor and John talk about the Ravens promotions, including the Pass for Cash and the chance to win season tickets for 20 years.
- John explains the process for entering non-winning tickets into the My Lottery Rewards account for the Ravens promotions.
- Nestor and John discuss the excitement of the Ravens season and the upcoming games.
- John emphasizes the importance of responsible sports wagering, especially with the variety of options available.
Thanksgiving and Pumpkin Pie
- Nestor shares his love for Thanksgiving, including eating delicious food and watching football.
- John and Nestor discuss their favorite Thanksgiving dishes, with John mentioning his preference for pumpkin pie with whipped cream.
- Nestor talks about his tradition of enjoying a sliver of pumpkin pie every morning during the holidays.
- John and Nestor conclude the conversation with well-wishes for a happy Thanksgiving and a reminder to play responsibly.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Maryland Lottery, Thanksgiving promotions, raffle ticket, early bird drawing, $50, 000 winner, $1 million top prize, holiday scratch offs, Jurassic Park contest, Powerball jackpot, Ravens season tickets, sports wagering, pumpkin pie, Maryland crab cake tour, holiday gifts, responsible gaming.
SPEAKERS
John Martin, Speaker 1, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:02
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We’re Baltimore positive, positively getting the Maryland crab cake tour back out on the road once we get done with all this turkey and stuffing and gravy and cranberry and football this weekend, it’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. I will have a raven scratch offs to give away. We have a fresh slate of crab cake hosting duties that we’re going to be doing the second week of December. Going to go back to deepest squalies in Canton, going to talk about the Feast of the Seven Fishes. And also on Friday of that week, we’re going to be at honeys Bar and Grill in Hale Thorpe, new place. They wrote to me said, Hey, you bring the Maryland crab cake tour to hail for a said, Sure, I’ll bring the Mary licker. So we’re going to do that. Apparently, they have some really interesting Asian food over there. I’m looking forward to that as well. And we’ll be back at Costas my home for the holidays. And Gina shock said, you sure we’re going to have some crab cakes together. I play with Cindy Lauper, so I’m gonna have Gina shock with me for the holidays, which should stand as no shock to John Martin, he’s the executive director of all things Marilyn, lottery and gaming, and over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house, we go for a Thanksgiving Fiesta and celebration. Happy Thanksgiving to you, man, are you? Um, your apple pumpkin mincemeat? What kind of what’s your pie?
Speaker 1 01:26
Oh, there’s only one pie on Thanksgiving, pumpkin pie. Okay?
John Martin 01:30
Traditionalist, I like that. I will apologize to those folks who are who are watching us with our little shenanigans. I am dressed to be on the road in matter of hours, over the river and through the woods. As you said,
Nestor Aparicio 01:43
You look like you’re going to John boy Walton’s house for the holidays.
01:50
Well, there you go. That’s something, but
John Martin 01:52
I just realized catching myself in my monitor, here I go. When did my father join the program? Geez.
Nestor Aparicio 01:58
Oh, stop with that, man. Wow. It is a football weekend. It’s a family weekend. It’s a time. I mean, you’ve got all these promotions you have, thanks winning promotions and all this stuff, but it is, um, it’s a time we all like, sort of stop a little bit, take a breather, do a little shopping, maybe online, get some discounts. But obviously, for you know what you guys are doing, this raffle thing has been coming up, and I see it. We’ll get to Ravens. We’re gonna do all that. We got a big Powerball jackpot for the holiday. But the raffle thing, you’ve got me thinking I actually had a conversation my wife like, when’s the last time I was like, in an old fashioned raffle in the neighborhood for sure, basket of cheer or something like that. Church raffle. Yeah, you guys get a million bucks in this thing. So let’s go. Let’s talk about this. We do. We do
John Martin 02:46
and again for all the details, MD, lottery.com, but one of the fun things about this is that we do an early bird drawing, not once, not twice, but thrice.
02:58
We do that. And the first
Nestor Aparicio 02:59
seasonal word, thrice. I like that.
John Martin 03:01
It kind of came to me right there, right Thank goodness we don’t have four, because I don’t know what that would be, but the the first one was this week, and it is a $50,000 early bird. All the tickets that were available and sold at that time, we selected one winner, and that lucky winner, I believe, has come forward. Purchased their their ticket at a 711 on Gaither Road in Rockville, and they won $50,000 now the best part of this is not only the $50,000 but they are still in the drawing, not for the other early birds only. Can only win the early bird once, but they are in the drawing for January 2, when we have top prize of $1,000,000.10 second tier prizes of $100,000.10 1000 prizes ranging from $50 to $500 all for the price of a $20 raffle ticket. When they’re gone, they’re gone, we’ve only primitive printed 325,000 of them. So if they’re gone before January 1, the drawing will still be on January 2. Great way to kick off the new year.
Nestor Aparicio 04:08
You know, I gave you a hard time about the old fashioned shirt you’re wearing an old fashioned holiday and pilgrims and all that good stuff. And I have a little eggnog already, but I would say, you know, raffles kind of like a fun old fashioned like that. I haven’t thought about raffles in a while. I haven’t been offered, because you would always get the little stub, right? You know, on the ticket, they were usually baby blue, or, like a canary yellow, or, you know, sometimes they were just white, you know, Dundalk, we could only afford one color ink, white and black, although we would probably get dark green, because we were the Dundalk house. But like, I’m thinking of all the raffle tickets in high school and PTA, just all of that. It’s such a fun thing. But sometimes it was like a car involved, or a trip somewhere, whatever involved or or cash, but a million bucks, Hey, man, this is good. I like this. This is you’ve led me to intrigue on 20 bucks here, John.
John Martin 04:58
This is by far the. Best odds a player will ever have at Maryland lottery to win a $1 million top prize. And we have two additional early bird drawings, not only the one this last week, but the next one be on December 8. So again, tickets sold all the way up to December 7 will be eligible for that and then we’ll have another drawing on December 22 and again, all those tickets up to that point will be eligible for the early birds, and then the final drawing on January 2.
Nestor Aparicio 05:27
Yeah, I want to sing. If I had a million dollars, John Martin is here, I’d be rich. He is the Executive Director, not rich, but better off, a whole lot better off, you know, after I pay taxes and all that for the holiday and thanks winning. I want to get you to that, because we’ll get to all my favorite scented tickets and all the holiday stuff. But you do go through these seasonal promotions, you your staff works really hard that make them fun, make them inviting. Thanks winning. Explain thanks winning to everybody. As I’m already winning, man, I’m having Thanksgiving. The ravens are playing. We’ve got delicious food on the table. It’s a it’s a great holiday around here.
John Martin 06:06
Well, thanks winning again. Details at MD lottery.com it’s a seasonal promotion, obviously, throughout the month of November. Now, through the end of the month, any draw game that a player purchases, you have a random chance to win either a $2 or $5 instant win coupon, good for your next game play, or a free $1 fast play reindeer riches ticket, which is part of our holiday fast play ticket lineup. And again, you can check out all of that information at MD lottery com,
Nestor Aparicio 06:41
and they do not smell like reindeer. They are printed tickets, but we do have a scented ticket. And you know, we haven’t joked about the gifts of green in a while, or the silver bell bucks or the festive fortune, but I’m coming to collect my candy cane cash tickets, because I need to get my bag by the time I get the cost this on the like the 18th of December, I’m going to be way indicating no offense with the Ravens tickets, been a lucky batch, but I need some scented tickets, because this is the one time of the year, and last year you tricked me with those snowflake scented I
07:17
would never do that. You tricked me
Nestor Aparicio 07:19
last year you did.
John Martin 07:20
Well, sometimes that’ll happen at Maryland lottery, but it is the season for fun. Is it not? Nestor, so much fun snow. Much, so much. Yes, very nice. I like what you did there. So we have a lineup of scratch off tickets, as well as a handful of fast play tickets, all the details at MD lottery.com including our scented $3 candy cane cash. So yeah, people have some fun with that. As as a gift, stocking stuffers, as we like to say, or gifts for the holiday, or just for yourself. Come on, aren’t you worth it? Aren’t you as an individual, worth it, working hard all year long, just treat yourself a little holiday. Scratch off from the Maryland lottery, visit one of our 4300 lottery retailers from Oakland, Ocean City and everywhere in between, and have some fun. Enjoy the holiday, but please play and gift responsibly, which means gifts above 18 years,
Nestor Aparicio 08:13
this is where Hold on I was going to go because only once or twice a year I get to tell this story. Go ahead, tell a tale.
08:21
I’m going to put my headphones on so I’m not listening. I had a
Nestor Aparicio 08:24
family I married into. Okay, so my my wife, tells the story of her younger sister, who’s now 50, or like that, like, I think she is 50. So this was a long time ago, back last century. We did things differently, and we didn’t do things the right way. And let me tell you how, because everybody had a stocking. Santa came down the chimney, and there was this Santa stocking, and one of them said Jessica, and one of them said Jennifer. Jennifer’s my wife. And somehow, someway, it got into the hands of babes. Tickets were cash, candy bars were bought. Things happened?
John Martin 09:04
Santa Claus guy, whoever he is, I need to talk to him. So
Nestor Aparicio 09:07
this was back in the 80s, you know, long time ago. John shame these people. And if my wife and her sister’s listening, shame, shame, shame on them. But this is not a joke, and Siri, people still do this. They like this is not cool giving kids. Yeah, these, this is not a gift for kids.
John Martin 09:27
No, it’s not like, please. It’s meant to be adult entertainment. People enjoy playing scratch offs, and we hope that they have some fun. And if they want to share that fun with others, that’s great, but please make sure gifts 18 plus years of age.
Nestor Aparicio 09:46
Good for co workers in the office, though, fun, right? Excellent. Great for co workers. Everybody likes lottery tickets for fun. They do. I mean, when I believe me, when I come out with these, this ravens batch, and I get $20 winners on the scanner, right on the show, and I need. Mean to do it. We so I felt like Bob Barker and they had hit the Showcase Showdown. I you know, I know you’ve been doing some things around the office too. You want to tell people about this promotion where folks come down, and it is really you host a game show right there at Montgomery Plaza in the headquarters. Folks come down. They don’t know whether they’re going to win five grand, 10 grand, a whole lot of grand. Tell them about this promotion, because I think this is a fun one, and you don’t do it all the time, no.
John Martin 10:29
And quite frankly, this promotion is now over, so we’re going to, we’re going to bring it back again at a later date, but, but the one you talk about unlock the cash, it had a game show element to it. I’d rather talk about one that we just awarded a second prize winner too, and that’s one of your favorite things. Is our Jurassic Park Second Chance contest. Did they go to Hawaii, or are they on the way to why they’re on their way? We will take four winners. We now have our second of the four. Mithra khusru of Laurel always wanted to go to Hawaii, and she is now getting her wish, and you can check out her story at MD lottery.com, she and her husband enjoy traveling, but they’ve never been to Hawaii, so now they have the opportunity to take that off their bucket list and details on the lovely trip. It’s a six day, five night trip for two great transportation and hotel accommodations in Oahu, $1,000 spending money, welcoming reception, a tour of various excursions around the island, lot of activities and, of course, a chance to play in the $1 million jackpot challenge another game show, live And in person, with a chance to win up to $1 million and the next two drawings, December 9 and January 7. So if you’re not familiar with the $5 Jurassic Park, scratch off ticket. Please stop by one of our 4300 Maryland lottery retailers and enter your non winning tickets into your My lottery rewards account, and hopefully you’ll be selected on either December 9 or January 7. And you can join James Dabney and Mithra khusru So far, two of the four
Nestor Aparicio 12:10
folks, well, James or Mithra, or any of the winners, December 9, January 7, when they win, if they need a little pep talk about the North Shore, about the shaved ice, and what I didn’t, I forgot to tell you this part, shave ice always get the snow cap. Always stop at shave ice is getting just whatever, blue, red, yellow, doesn’t matter. Raspberry, peach, whatever the flavors are, they’re delicious. But what you really need to know is always get the pineapple square when you go to get holy chicken, or you go to get the shrimp boats on the North Shore, because the pineapples the freshest in the world. So there’s your Hawaiian advice for Thanksgiving, for the holidays, all that John Martin is here. He is the executive director of all things Maryland, lottery gaming. Last thing, because I want to hit ravens with you, because I know we’re in season. We’re playing Cincinnati. And I explained to Dave Lapham that the big winner, you know, of the trip for the ravens, who’s going to Cincinnati? Gonna get a pretty good football game, I would think, but we get a big Powerball jackpot too, and I don’t like letting that get by, because $681 million is $681 million and we had the mega that got up on a billion a couple weeks ago. But we’re in a big role here with Powerball. We mean, like, if you and I get through this up on the Christmas time. This is going to be a billion dollar jackpot if it doesn’t get hit soon.
John Martin 13:24
Whoa. Wouldn’t that be a nice Merry Christmas for someone? Yeah, right now, as we speak, at 680 $1 million the drawing will be on Wednesday of this week, and then another one on Saturday. So three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Saturday drawings. Please check your Maryland lottery app. Visit our website, stop by one of our 4300 retailers and check out that that jackpot. So if it continues to climb, you’re right, Nestor, before the end of the month of December, before that guy, Santa Claus, stops by again and before the the New Year’s Eve ball drops in Times Square, we may see another billion dollar jackpot.
Nestor Aparicio 14:03
Wouldn’t that be something? All right, ravens, I’m giving these out. We’re still, clearly the Ravens have made this thing interesting. You know, win a lot of football games right now playing some really important games, including our giveaway. You’re still doing pass for cash. We still got home games. You still got things happening each and every game, and big chances to still win and big chances to still get tickets for 20
John Martin 14:25
years, right? People can visit our ravens page at MD lottery.com and check out all of the deadlines for submitting your non winning tickets into drawings for wonderful litany of experiential prizes pass for cash, which is always a fun event, and the the crown jewel season tickets for 20 years. Right now, we’ve got three young ladies who are already in the finalist seats for that. We’ll have six by the time the season’s over, and we’ll invite all six to M and T Bank Stadium. We’d like to. Do it weather permitting, outdoors at Mt Bank Stadium, and select the lucky winner, live and in person and put their name up on the big Jumbotron. And it’s a lot of fun. It’s a great event and a way to cap off what we hope will be a great football season.
Nestor Aparicio 15:15
Do they generally like you do it on the field, maybe in good weather, you get to spike the ball. If you win, you win too, right? So that’s even more fun.
John Martin 15:24
There’s no ball spiking. Why are you making your own contest now?
Nestor Aparicio 15:28
No, I want to spike the ball if I win tickets for 20 years. Yeah? Well, yeah, you could probably stadium. Yeah, I think so.
John Martin 15:37
I would think so, you know, we I don’t think we’ve done ball spiking before. We’ll have to, can we get my production assistant,
Nestor Aparicio 15:44
AI team on that we can make that happen? There’s John Martin is here. He’s the Executive Director of all things Maryland, lottery and gaming. We always tell everybody, play responsibly, always, and obviously with lots and lots of football games and ways and parlays and ads and all of that stuff, John, you want to give a little public service. Little public service on that, because I know this is this a big weekend, a Big time, big couple of weeks here, and the games get a little tighter and the season gets a little tighter as well. You know what? It’s available. I think everybody realizes sports wagering is there.
John Martin 16:17
Happy anniversary. Today is the third anniversary of our launching of the mobile sports wagering platform here in the state of Maryland. It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 2022 when we decided to say, hey, Gee, I wonder what this will do. And since then, there’s been no turning back. The reality is, while we had pretty much the first year of a retail only sports book that, once we went to the mobile wagering quickly, was the player preference. 97% of every wager now is on a mobile device. And that’s that’s a significant number, but it’s also significant responsibility, because, yes, with the variety of options for in game play and single game parlays and and multiple legs on parlays, a lot can happen. It can be very appealing, but please, understand the game, understand the responsibilities. Have a plan. Stick with it, whether it’s time spent or money spent, don’t go chasing losses after the the first quarter maybe has blown up your your your parlay sheet. It’s best to just kind of relax, enjoy the game and and come back another day.
Nestor Aparicio 17:36
All right. Well, let’s have some fun with it this weekend. Lots of football, lots of cold weather to go along with that, and hopefully, oh, yes, some delicious pumpkin you know, you mentioned pumpkin pie to me. It’s not pumpkin pie if it doesn’t have an ALA mode and it doesn’t have, like, a big, big sport of whipped cream, my wife makes fresh whipped cream. She’s even better. But, I mean, add a little ready whip. You know, out of the can make that fun sound. I’m down with it. So sorry. This is my favorite holiday, right? I mean, we all get to eat and we all get to watch football. What’s not to love about it, right?
John Martin 18:04
John, you know, I am not going to shill for any any individual retailer or sponsor or non sponsor, but I think people know when I say there are places around the market where you can go and get a pie bigger than your head for a relatively inexpensive price. And boy, isn’t that a fun treat. I don’t know how many people it would serve. I suppose it’s more than a single serving, because it’s, it’s it’s huge, but yeah, a lot of pumpkin pie going around. And yes, I do, I do like mine, with a little dollop or two of of whipped cream. Is never a
Nestor Aparicio 18:37
point where I make a cup of coffee in the morning this week of the year where I see the silver tin in there, and I see it start to, you know, that I don’t go in and just get a sliver, a sliver, a slip like and it never goes to waste. You know, check in a week from now, it’ll be gone somehow, and my cat doesn’t eat it, I promise you that.
John Martin 18:56
So when you say waste, was that w a, i, s t or W A,
19:01
S, T, E, both. Oh,
Nestor Aparicio 19:04
both. Yes. It will not go to waste. It will go to my waste. Yes, okay, I’m feeling better. We talked about my GBMC visit last week. By the way, GBMC may have saved my life last week, so I want to give a public service announcement out there for our partners at GBMC. Had a colonoscopy last week. I got a polyp removed and was resting comfortably for a day or two was not nearly what I thought it was going to be from a procedure standpoint, but certainly from a head standpoint and feeling good about the holiday and being thankful, I am very thankful for that. So that’s the thing I’m most thankful for. Number two is pumpkin pie, and number three is the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery. I’ll have Raven scratch offs to give away. We have five dates in December, including deepest squalies. We’re going back to gertrudes with Dan Rodricks for the New Year’s. We’re going to be at honeys in halethorpe, and we’re going to be back at Costas and Dundalk with Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Gina shock. And I’m going to put together like a whole Dundalk contingent of people, because. Because it’s the holidays, and I’m going to be home for the holidays. Happy Thanksgiving to you, John. Thanks coming by.
John Martin 20:07
Same to you and yours, Nestor, and look forward talking to you again real soon.
Nestor Aparicio 20:11
All right, eggnog, Eggnog. Eggnog. On the agenda, agenda, agenda. I am Nestor. We are W NSD. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stopped talking Thanksgiving, pumpkin pie, cranberries and Baltimore positive. Stay with us. You.
