Every March, the Maryland Lottery steps up its game to make sure than citizens are playing the games within their means and understanding the odds and the help that is available. Executive Director John Martin joins us frequently to discuss all elements of the games and the realization that March Madness and baseball season are here and it’s time to consider your gambling habits.
Nestor Aparicio and John Martin, Executive Director of the Maryland Lottery, discussed various promotions and responsible gaming initiatives. The Monopoly Second Chance contest offers cash prizes, including a rolling jackpot over $125,000. The Home Run Riches campaign rewards contestants with $500 for each Orioles home run and $5,000 for Grand Slams. Martin shared the story of a $3.3 million winner, “Amazing Racer,” who discovered their winnings after hearing about a big win at their local store. They also debunked common lottery myths, emphasizing the randomness of outcomes and the importance of responsible gaming.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Maryland Lottery, Home Run Riches, Monopoly Scratch Offs, Responsible Gaming, March Madness, Baseball Season, Fast Play Game, Multi Match Prize, Winner Stories, Scratch Off Tickets, Lottery Promotions, Sports Gambling, Baltimore Positive, Maryland Lottery App, Second Chance Contest.
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, John Martin
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Music. Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We are going to be doing the Maryland crab cake tour next week and beyond. We’re going to be at CVP at Towson, first time at the Charles village pub, hopefully celebrating the fruits of a Towson, Tigers March Madness birth. We will see that. That’ll be on Friday, we will have scratch off the Maryland lottery, the magic eight ball, the lucky magic. It’s been a really lucky batch. So far, we were at Faith, Lee’s on Thursday, we will be at Pizza John’s on the 21st of the month before Lucas and I take off to Canada for opening day. So I brought my hat so they let me in. John Martin is here. He is the executive director of all things Maryland, lottery and gaming. Before we get started, I had your your winner of the Ravens seats for life. And she was fantastic. We had a good time and all of that. But it became very clear to me that this home run riches thing is starting to like. Here we go, and gunners hurt, and they move the fences in. So I know we have home run riches happening right now. We do. We
John Martin 01:06
have lots of things happening. So you think that hat’s going to get you through, huh?
Nestor Aparicio 01:10
I’m, I’m just going to try to be nice. You know, my my US passport. It is what it is. I’m four days in Canada, in out across the Peace Bridge, yeah. Well, good luck with all of that? Well, Anthony Santander is going to stay in Canada. I found that out. But other than that, I’m going to come home. So yes, very
John Martin 01:26
nice. Very nice. Yeah, we have lots of things going on. The the madness continues here in the month of March, or begins, I guess in the month of March. We’ll talk more about that in a minute. But yeah, these, these promotions are a continuing factor here at Maryland lottery. Check them out at MD lottery.com we before we get to home and riches, I want to remind everyone that we have an ongoing, at least for the next several weeks, monopoly Second Chance contest, if you can enter your non winning monopoly scratch offs into your My lottery rewards account for a chance to win cash prizes coming up here, actually, next week, we’ll have our first of two rolling cash jackpot Second Chance prices right now, I can hear it. It’s rolling. It’s over $125,000 Nestor, do not pass go. Do not click. $200 get in on the $125,000 monopoly. Scratch off these.
Nestor Aparicio 02:26
Monopoly scratch offs. These right here. Yes, these ones right here. These are really very simple. These are just the samples I gotta I gotta get some of these to give away here, though, the the green for cash. John Martin is here. He’s Executive Director, role things, Marilyn, lottery gaming. This month, you’re gonna hear a bunch of ads on our radio station at wnst and responsible gaming is not a one month or two month thing. It’s a year round thing. But I think March Madness sort of brings on next week, there’ll be people doing more gambling than they usually do and filling out brackets, amongst other things. It’s a fun time of the year, and it’s a big time for sports gambling. This time of
John Martin 03:02
year it is. And certainly you’ve got a lot of things happening here. Obviously, the beginning of the baseball season, the end of the month, the home run riches campaign, and again, new and improved home run riches. We’re calling it the home run riches walk off winnings promotion. So I’m
Nestor Aparicio 03:21
sure he knew it improved because they moved the fence in. So it’s going to be, we’re going to have more home runs.
John Martin 03:27
There you go. There’s that going on. But check out MD lottery.com, for all the details. If people aren’t familiar with it, we select a lucky contestant of the game for each of the 162 games of the year, home or away, you get $500 being selected as the contestant of the game. You get $500 for every Orioles home run hit in that game. And should one of them or more be a Grand Slam? $5,000 and we gave away a few of those last
Nestor Aparicio 03:56
year, didn’t we? I forgot about the Grand Slam part of the promotion that that’s the big banana here. We’re going to load the bases up, and we’re going to have, we’re going to move the fences in, and Ryan mountcastle is going to make, make you pay.
John Martin 04:07
Don’t start calling out people. That’s, that’s, yeah, let’s keep it generic. Let’s keep it generic. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 04:14
I just think a lot of home runs are going to be hit this year at Camden yard. So I’m, I’m, I’m in the offense.
John Martin 04:20
Well, we hope with you there might be a lot of 10, nine ball games, you would hope
Nestor Aparicio 04:26
some pitching issues. We will be talking about the pitching here, so we’re not talking about them, but it is great talking baseball, though, right? I mean, it is that time of the year, and spring training is going on, and home run riches for me is the one thing that every single night I watch every Oreo game, believe it or not, and every night there’s a contestant. So this is your chance. People say, How do I get in? You got to go buy home run riches tickets. And they’re not scratch offs, right? I mean, they’re available. Literally, no.
John Martin 04:50
This is the fast play game, and fast play is the kind of a hybrid between a scratch off and a draw game. You can purchase them at any. Of our self service lottery vending machines across the landscape here in Maryland, as well as go up to the counter and ask for a fast play ticket. We have about 25 or so games that we keep at various price points, but this is carving out its space just like the Raven scratch off ticket carves out its little space on the on the scratch off lineup throughout the year, the the home run riches is a fan favorite, and obviously so, and people are excited. Everybody’s in first place today. So as the season goes on, and hopefully, the people will get get more and more involved in the game, and more and more home runs get hit, and they realize that, hey, they too can join in on the fun with our home run riches walk off winnings promotion, here in 2025 John
Nestor Aparicio 05:47
Martin is here. He’s the Executive Director of all things Maryland lottery and gaming. As much we talk responsible, this month, we got home run riches. I had Shannon brown on last week. She is the grand prize winner of the Ravens. Promotion, for 20 years. She’s gonna be sitting in the club level parent with her husband, although her daughter’s probably gonna have some, you know, a few visits and all this. I know you love seeing the excitement of winners. And you had the six winners down at the stadium two weeks ago, and she was effusive and talking about her dad, but there’s lots of winners, and we found that $3.3 million winner from a couple weeks ago yet. I mean, I know we have some good winner stories. You
John Martin 06:24
know, it’s funny you mentioned that one, because the the winner. And you can check out the story on MD lottery.com. Goes by the name amazing racer. And I don’t know what that means exactly, but I will tell you about the story, because I did meet amazing racer yesterday in our winners lounge. That was the fourth largest multi match prize in lottery history, $3.3 million and it’s a great story, as most of them are They. They? The two of them, husband and wife team, the two of them buying tickets for years at one particular location out in Parkville, and they they bought their normal compliment of multi match games tickets and went home. And as a lot of players do, they just kind of let them sit there and and mature in the day’s sun. That’s my wife. She’ll
Nestor Aparicio 07:19
go out and buy him. She gets excited about buying, then she doesn’t check him, yeah,
John Martin 07:23
yeah. So decided to then heard through the grapevine that somebody won at his retail establishment, and still didn’t want to, you know, jinx it, so he didn’t even look at the numbers. He just kind of walked in to get a sense for what was going on at the store there, and realized that that that he did have a winning ticket, scanned it and it said, of course, come on down CMD
Nestor Aparicio 07:48
lottery is what it’s a C, C, John Martin still did not
John Martin 07:52
know how much he won. He knew he had a winning ticket
Nestor Aparicio 07:57
came. He knew there had been a $3 million winner there, and he’s thinking, maybe I won 500 bucks. Maybe, maybe,
John Martin 08:02
sure, yeah, sure. Maybe we can go and, you know, get something to eat after this, come in here and realize, in fact, he was the holder of the 3.3 million. So
Nestor Aparicio 08:12
hold on. He didn’t realize till he showed up yesterday. Yeah,
John Martin 08:16
he knew, he knew he’d won a prize. They had to come here, but didn’t realize it was the grand prize until he was here.
Nestor Aparicio 08:23
Oh, okay, did he think it was the grand prize that he had? He heard this show two weeks ago, seen anything on the news that there had been, he knew there had been a $3.3 million ticket. Yes, he
John Martin 08:32
did. And he knew was at the place that he shops. So I think, I think, you know what, and I can get this. People don’t, and I’m the same way, right, in my my career, you know, boy, somebody won in your state. Wow. Could it be me? Well, somebody won in your city, wow. Somebody wanted the place you go. I mean, you just keep thinking about thinking, Hmm, this was interesting.
Nestor Aparicio 08:53
Well, I wouldn’t be spending the $3.3 million till I show up, but I probably would say, What did I win? What did I win? Sir, you have to come to the Maryland lottery, sir, we can’t. You’re not allowed to tell them, literally, if he called you and said, No, you literally have to come down and present it. Right? That’s the lead. Well, we have
John Martin 09:09
to see the ticket, right, right. We have to make sure that that ticket, that possessor of that ticket, is, in fact, the person who will so that’s why
Nestor Aparicio 09:17
you summon them over to the former Montgomery Wards, building,
John Martin 09:22
right, right, but, but his takeaway, and again, the story at MD lottery.com, the two of them hadn’t slept in days. Three days they sent between before and they knew they had a winner of some kind. Why
Nestor Aparicio 09:34
didn’t they come down on Tuesday?
John Martin 09:36
Well, yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know, but, but there they were so, so there’s that
Nestor Aparicio 09:41
minute. Hold on. A second. They come in with the ticket. I’ve been to your office many, many times that comes where I get my tickets. Come in, Buzz up, go down the hallway, past all the old lottery, lotto things. And they come in, they got their dirt sighted. You know, regular, normal people from Parkville, just like us. And they come in, they have their ticket, and they think they might have won 3.3 mm. You, but they they know they want something big, like, what’s the minimum? 50 grand, 100 grand just to come to your place. You when you show up, you know you’ve won something big, right?
John Martin 10:07
Yes, when you’re summoned, yeah, it’s typically over $5,000
Nestor Aparicio 10:14
No, there’s a big difference in 5000 to 3.3 million. John, come
John Martin 10:17
on now, don’t make me do the math. But yes, you’re right. I didn’t know there was math on today’s show. This is
Nestor Aparicio 10:22
the part where I’m titillated. I’ve been a lottery spokesperson for a number of years. I’ve known more about it. I I hear all the other media stuff. I had no idea that if you won the multi match, you wouldn’t know that you were the 3.1 you get there, you think you know, but you don’t know, right? For
John Martin 10:39
sure. That’s a choice. That’s a choice they made. I mean, yes, anyone else might have looked at it and said, I want to know before I go down there. Should I wear my, you know, Sunday go to meet and close? Or
Nestor Aparicio 10:49
8should I What? Is there a way to know? I guess I’m asking. Oh yeah, oh yeah, no, no, yeah. You know
John Martin 10:53
what the numbers are. You can go on. So they Okay, all right, they made a choice. It’s like, it’s like, you know, Christmas morning, you know, they they wanted to wait and wrap, unwrap their package there. They didn’t want to do it. Christmas Eve, $3.3
Nestor Aparicio 11:06
million changes your life. There’s no question. I mean, we talk about the hundreds, all of a sudden, my wife years, no, that’ll do one, $3.3 million today. I don’t know, John, I probably wouldn’t be your Wednesday to do the show with you. I mean, I’m just for a little I’d have to take a little bit of time to myself. Probably,
John Martin 11:21
yep, no, you’re right. You’re right. And they did. They took those three sleepless nights in between the fact that they made the appointment when they got here and now, yeah. I mean, who knows, they could be really having a good time. But layer
Nestor Aparicio 11:32
right now, the sun shining in their eating point is what I it’s,
John Martin 11:35
it sounds like they they had their their their their priorities in place and their plants in place between family and charities and their church. I mean, they it sound like they were, were well grounded
Nestor Aparicio 11:50
exactly when that ticket got sold. And it’s two miles from where I live in Towson, so I know, I know exactly where, where that location went to the right place. See people really win, and they match. They win home run riches. They went on a lot monopoly scratch offs. Get asked for our friends at the Maryland lottery. It is a big month here for Responsible gaming as well as we get into this. And you’ll be hearing the ads around here. This one any other winners? Any other stories we got going on? I mean, nothing is going to 3.3 million.
John Martin 12:17
Yeah. I mean, the rest pale in comparison, but they’re all there and more at MD, lottery.com, but you know, you talk about responsible gaming, and you and I’ve been doing this for what, like 4050, years. Now. We’ve been doing this a while. How long has it been?
Nestor Aparicio 12:30
At least five years. Yes. Okay, so would
John Martin 12:33
you say you are a, an expert in in all things lottery,
Nestor Aparicio 12:39
not all things, but I’m better than I used to be. I try to be good enough to be an official spokesperson that I can speak like as an example, Thursday, I gave some scratch offs. People didn’t know how to do them. I said, take the little prize check, give me the phone. And I scanned it and went, Oh, they weren’t a winner, but I’m trying to teach people how to better play the lottery. And then I said, No, that’s not a losing ticket. It’s a non winning ticket that you can re enter. So I’m trying to, I know all of that,
8John Martin 13:06
so you are now the next contestant on fact or myths. I’m going to ask you a series of questions, and
Nestor Aparicio 13:14
it’s either a fact, hope I don’t fail.
John Martin 13:17
Okay, question number one, John, question number one. There are lucky games and unlucky games. Is that a lottery? Fact or myth? That’s a myth. All the games have a chance to win. All of the information about the odds are available at MD lottery.com is that good? You are correct, sir. All right, yeah, yeah, yeah. I got eight prizes. They all vary, but each game is as lucky as the next. No no favorites, all right. Question number two, the outcome of any Maryland lottery purchase is random.
Nestor Aparicio 13:55
8That is correct. I would think, unless you pick your own numbers, then you know, then you pick your numbers. But I would think anyone can win, like, what? Yes, I I think it’s it’s not. There’s no fix in it’s on the up and up, as we say, the Maryland lottery, you are correct. All right, the outcome
John Martin 14:11
of any game is random. No matter how many tickets or games you play, or how long you play, or whether you pick your own numbers or not, the outcome is random. Question number three, more people seem to win in the most heavily populated areas of the state,
Nestor Aparicio 14:31
more people. That’s not true, because I’ve seen people win in low decoding and stuff, but there’s less people, so there’s probably less tickets sold. So I would think that more people win in a place where there’s more people, but that’s probably not true. So I don’t know. I’m gonna get this one wrong. So
John Martin 14:45
wait you just you gave me both answers. Is it a fact or a myth?
Nestor Aparicio 14:52
I don’t know. I guess it’s a myth. But like, I think, where there are more people that would be more winners, that just feels to me to be that’s my comment. Sense. That’s not very it’s uncommon. My common sense.
John Martin 15:02
Well, in this case, common sense would have led you to a correct answer. It is a fact. Because while wins, as you pointed out, can happen anywhere in the state, areas with larger populations, typically do have as you started to convince yourself have more sales because they’re in more popular areas, which typically translates into more winter so it is a fact. There’s got
Nestor Aparicio 15:26
to be more winners in Dundalk than there are anywhere else. Because Dundalk, at least it used to be, maybe, maybe during the boom times, it was the most populous suburb, because we have row homes, right? I mean, we have row there’s more people living there than there are in some place where there just aren’t a lot of people, Hagerstown, someplace like that, where houses are spread out. So that would, that would make sense that if you look on a relief map, there would be more winners from Baltimore than Salisbury. That just seems to make sense on a population basis. Sure,
John Martin 15:54
sure, you still got the wrong but yes, you’re like Salisbury, but that’s fine. Okay, sure. Who doesn’t? Okay, fact or myth, these lottery games are games of chance, not skill.
Nestor Aparicio 16:09
Yes, chance, yes, chance, correct, correct. There’s no skill involved. There’s no skill involved, even though people think they know a lot about football when they pick football games, that’s a lottery game. That’s a sports wager but people think that they have an edge on that in some way where I don’t think people feel that way about lottery. I think people understand that it’s random. It’s only helping up the state’s running it. They’re not doing business with Uncle Charlie. They’re doing business with a legitimate organization that legitimately takes its profits and invest them back into the state, which is why you work for the state of Maryland. That’s, is that good? That’s a good explanation, because people gambling this that I’m like, hold on, people are gambling anyway, stakes in on this, and it’s going back into like, education and back into good things in our state. That’s the thing I always say to people about the lottery in general.
John Martin 16:56
Yes, very good, very good. More than I needed there. But thank you very much. Okay, next question, next question. I’m going to use my air quotes. You ready? There are lucky lottery retailers that sell more winning tickets?
Nestor Aparicio 17:10
No, no, no, no, no. That’s by that that I debunk that I immediately debunk that. Yes, well,
John Martin 17:17
debunking will get you a win. There. You are correct. That is a myth again, because of the random nature, it doesn’t matter there aren’t lucky locations more than another. All right, last one, because I think we were beating this here to death. Last one factor, myth, a number is due to hit if it hasn’t won. Recently,
Nestor Aparicio 17:40
Miss Edie. Thought that my number ain’t hitting the wall. My numbers, do you know? No, I It’s this. This is you’re asking me random like logic, math questions. And I didn’t do so good in college at that. But no,
John Martin 17:55
no, Miss Edie. God, rest her soul. I’m assuming yes at this point, that is, in fact, a myth. You are correct, sir, these are random drawings. Any result is possible. There is no pattern. There is no
Nestor Aparicio 18:09
8do. That’s such a baseball thing. John, my dad, would say, hey, Eddie’s up. He ended home run in three days. He’s due, right? That’s a baseball thing, right? That is, you say that about COVID, right, right, right. So five out of six. Not bad, very representative.
John Martin 18:26
And people who want to play this game with their family and friends can go to MD lottery.com, check out our responsible gaming messaging, and you’ll find the fact or myth game that you can play with your your family and friends, and you too can get five out of six. Or maybe better. I’m gonna
Nestor Aparicio 18:41
play a little game with John Martin, Executive Director of the Maryland lottery. Right now, the boy the Cleveland baseball team, formerly known with an eye, now known as the guardians, has not won a World Series in three quarters of a century. Are they due? John? Are they due? Oh, no.
John Martin 19:00
I could have debunked this a long time
Nestor Aparicio 19:02
ago, or the Orioles, do? I mean, if you start to do the math on how many teams there are and how often they win, sure, like, at some point the lions and the Browns have to get to a Super Bowl. You know, this has to
John Martin 19:14
happen. Yeah, you know that. That’s another sad story there. Because again, before, before you were born, and maybe even before I was born, I have to check this out. You know, the lions and the Browns did play together for what would have then been the championship game they played multiple times in the 50s. Yeah. So, you know, it’s taken us now two generations to is
Nestor Aparicio 19:36
this kind of like the Patriots. One enough now we’re getting even with them. You know, like Steelers haven’t won forever either. They want a couple. They like to talk about the ones they want, but they haven’t won recently. So yeah, you know what I’m thinking, and this is on behalf of your people and my people, Orioles and guardians, we’re due. We’re due. Can I say that?
John Martin 19:56
I’m just telling you now. Here it is, the still in the spring training. Oh, we picked. A bad year to think we’re due this. This could be a this could be a challenging year all the way around. Oh,
Nestor Aparicio 20:05
stop. It’s Don’t be baseball and spring training. It’s every dope Springs is what it is. Putting the clocks ahead this week,
John Martin 20:13
I I’m I’m in practice too. I’m getting my I’m getting my dollar spring training practice in. I just
Nestor Aparicio 20:21
feel bad that I got one of those questions wrong. John Martin is here. He’s the Executive Director of all things, Marilyn, lottery gaming. We will not get the magic eight ball scratch offs wrong when we are at Charles village pub in Towson. We’ll be there on Friday, hopefully celebrating some Towson Hi Jinks and excitement. And we need March more March Madness around here, it’s March. We don’t have baseball for a couple of weeks. We got tampering period next week, all things going on. Luke will be monitoring all that. We’ll be monitoring all things sports and beyond. Out at Baltimore positive. John Martin will return next week. And by the way, if you haven’t heard our piece with Shannon Brown and Doug Lloyd join me as well. It was fantastic. She’s up in Aberdeen. She was the big winner of the ravens, seats for life, or seats for 20 years, which hope to live another 20 years. I hope she didn’t live longer than that. She’s very, very excited about her ravens tickets. You can find all of that out at at Baltimore positive if you want to scan your winning or non winning tickets, make sure you’re downloading the Marilyn lottery app. Make sure you’re out at MD lottery.com to learn all about responsible Gaming here this month. Make sure you have some fun. Keep it safe, keep it right, and try to get that sixth answer right so we don’t get five out of six wrong. Next time I am Nestor, we are W, N, S, T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive. Stay with us. You.
