After nearly 10 years of playing the same lottery number combination, a $50,000 (AU$72,000) payday has finally arrived for a man in the US, lottery officials said.
The winner from Prince George's County, Maryland, who remained anonymous, won the big prize on May 28 after playing the Maryland Lottery's Bonus Match 5 game, according to a news release.
"I play the same numbers all the time, I've been doing so for years," the man told officials from the Maryland Lottery's headquarters in Baltimore.
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He visited a liquor store in Temple Hills and bought a $4 (AU$6) ticket containing six lines – one of which included his usual combination of the numbers 5, 6, 8, 23 and 30, he said.
The winner, who is a retired printing press operator, says he chose four of the lines himself while the computer system randomly generated the remaining two lines.
He learned in disbelief the following day that he'd won the top prize using his special set of five digits, the Maryland Lottery reported.
As a bonus, the anonymous winner also won an additional $15 (AU$22) off of three numbers from another line that he'd selected himself.
He called his wife of 22 years immediately to share the good news, the news release said.
"Many lottery players tell us that they have certain combinations of numbers that they use on a regular basis," Seth Elkin, a spokesman for Maryland Lottery and Gaming, told CNN in an email.
"Sometimes it's birthdates or house numbers or uniform numbers of their favorite athletes, and sometimes they've just decided certain numbers feel 'lucky' to them," Elkin said.
The winner says he plans to use the prize to pay bills and put the rest into savings.
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