Winning Ticket

Playing the Lotto is a family affair for Mr. and Mrs. Charles Fawley and their two daughters. And because it is, the parents and children will share equally the $10 million that Mr. Fawley won in Wednesday's Maryland State Lottery drawing.Mr. Fawley will split the prize with his daughters, Deborah Fawley Wise and Sharon Fawley Folden.The rule in the family is: "If the winning ticket was between any of us, we would split it three ways," said Mrs. Wise.The Fawleys and their children live in Myersville, Frederick County.

For Daniel and Albina Thoma, a weekly 20-mile drive from their home in Townsend, Del., to Elkton proved to be a trip worth $8.3 million.Yesterday, Mr. and Mrs. Thoma accepted a facsimile check for $8.3 million from the State Lottery Agency a week and a day after they bought a winning Lotto ticket.They didn't even realize they had won until a week after the drawing and were so nervous about driving to Baltimore yesterday -- on Mr. Thoma's 61st birthday -- that they rented a limousine for the trip.

RICHMOND, Va. -- An Australian syndicate that tried to corner a $27 million Virginia Lottery game handed over a pink ticket bearing the winning numbers yesterday. But state officials here said they would not pay the prize until they investigate the ticket's validity.The Lottery Department said last night that it would rule on the matter by the end of next week. Kenneth W. Thorson, the Lottery director, said that if the prize were not paid to the investment group, the money would go toward a future jackpot.

Mega Millions winners get $5.3 million each A mother and daughter from the Essex area cashed in yesterday the winning Mega Millions ticket sold this month at a Baltimore County store, a lottery official said. The winners, who have chosen to remain anonymous, selected a cash payout of $15,771,000, said lottery spokeswoman Carole Everett. After such deductions as taxes, the two took home $5.3 million apiece, Everett said. The ticket was valued at $27 million if annual payouts had been chosen.

That gasp you heard from the direction of Carroll County shortly after 5 a.m. today quite possibly came from Maryland's newest multimillionaire.One winning ticket was sold in the state's $18 million Lotto jackpot drawing last night -- the third largest in the game's 11-year history -- at a Carroll County convenience store.Shortly after 5 a.m., the principal of New Windsor Middle School glanced sleepily over a cup of coffee at his morning paper, and, he said, found that the numbers on his ticket matched those drawn last night -- 11, 26, 30, 32, 41, 48.A bit later Jeffrey Kimble already had checked in at the 7-Eleven store in the 2800 block New Windsor Road where be bought the ticket and continued on to his school, stunning his early-arriving colleagues with the statement: "I've won the lottery.

$8 MILLION LOTTO JACKPOTWinning ticket sold at Eastern Shore storeOne person holds a winning $8 million ticket from Saturday's Lotto drawing, Maryland Lottery officials announced yesterday.The winning ticket was sold at a variety store on the Eastern Shore, said lottery spokesman Carroll H. Hynson Jr. The drawing marked the fifth time this year an $8 million jackpot has been won.The winning numbers were: 2-12-29-32-40-44.When the ticket is validated, it will be worth an estimated $400,000 a year before taxes for 20 years.

Robert and Ann Roth, a retired couple from Frederick, have four daughters and six grandchildren scattered across the United States. Sometimes their phone bill gets hefty, and Robert gets angry.Not anymore.The Roths discovered yesterday morning over breakfast that they had one of the three winning tickets for Wednesday's $15 million lotto jackpot -- a ticket Robert, 67, had purchased for his wife of 43 years on their anniversary, which was Wednesday.The couple, and two other winners, will each get $5 million -- or $250,000 a year for the next 20 years.

Maryland's newest lottery millionaires picked up their first checks yesterday at Owen Brown Liquor Store in Columbia, where they bought their winning $21 million ticket.Columbia residents Catherine Helowicz and Timothy Udicious each received a check for $338,624 -- the amount left from an annual award of slightly over $1 million after state and federal taxes were taken out. They will receive checks for the next 19 years.The couple held the only winning ticket in last month's $21 million Lotto jackpot, the largest since four years ago, when David Moreland of Lothian won the same amount.

Forget the technicolored ties, plaid shirts and other gifts a man may receive on his birthday, particularly when, after 65 years, he has just about everything he needs.What more could Lester C. Martin want now that he has won -- only days before his 65th birthday -- an $11.7 million Maryland Lotto jackpot?"Not a thing," Mr. Martin said yesterday with a smile of contentment, as he and his family presented the sole winning ticket from the Saturday drawing. The happy ceremony occurred at the State Lottery Agency headquarters at Reisterstown Road Plaza.

AFTER a year and half, the precedent-setting Fletcher v. Fletcher divorce case finally seems to be nearing completion in Virginia. The central issue: how should the $7,686,629 Charlotte Fletcher won from a Maryland Lotto ticket be divided?Is it marital property?The trial became so ugly that there are few agreed-upon facts. Charlotte Fletcher claims that her husband, Louis, initiated their separation by moving from their Annandale, Va., residence to Prince William County in an effort to find work.