A resident of Baltimore City is the winner of the $400,000 grand prize in the final drawing of the $2 Million VaxCash Promotion.Officials from the Maryland Department of Health (MDH) are in the process of contacting and verifying the eligibility of the winner, whose identity is not immediately available. Maryland Lottery staff will then guide the winner through the claims process. The winner will have the option to remain anonymous.
The Baltimore City resident is the last of 41 winners in the VaxCash Promotion. The first 40, selected in daily drawings from May 25 through July 3, each won $40,000. The $2 million in prize money came from the Maryland Lottery’s marketing fund and had already been allocated to the Lottery for advertising and promotional purposes.
The VaxCash Promotion, announced by Governor Larry Hogan on May 20, was a collaboration of the Maryland Lottery and MDH, aimed at incentivizing Marylanders who had not yet received their COVID-19 vaccinations while rewarding those who had. All Maryland residents 18 and older who received a COVID-19 shot at a non-Federal facility in Maryland at any time were automatically entered into the drawings. Beginning with the June 27 drawing, 21,389 Maryland residents 18 or older who were vaccinated at Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities located in Maryland also became eligible under a records-sharing agreement between the VA and MDH.
The first drawing on May 25 included more than 2.9 million Maryland residents who had received at least one COVID-19 shot prior to that date, and there were more than 3.2 million in the final drawing on July 4. Winners, who were from 12 counties and Baltimore City, had the option to remain anonymous, but so far there have been 11 who consented to publicity and told their stories about the importance of being vaccinated:
- May 27: Deidre Poore Eagan, Towson
- May 28: Gerard Dupree, Glen Burnie
- June 2: Virginia Woerner, Elkton
- June 4: Katie Limbacher, Elkridge
- June 5: Bryan Schlein, Towson
- June 6: Tabatha Duckett, Indian Head
- June 11: Marnobia Alegria Juarez, Silver Spring
- June 15: Santana Portillo Dominguez, Annapolis
- June 18: Celso Morales Salinas, Annapolis
- June 19: Jennifer LeBaron, Frederick
- June 27: Kimberli Joyner, Brooklyn
Since its inception in 1973, Maryland Lottery and Gaming has awarded more than $28.2 billion in prizes to Lottery players and more than $17.3 billion in Lottery revenue to the State of Maryland.
