Playing it safe was the right way to go

By Kate Northrop

DEARBORN, Mich. — An anonymous woman had twice the luck when a bout of caution led her to win two $110,000 Fantasy 5 Double Play prizes.

One lucky lottery player decided to play it safe when purchasing her usual tickets for the Michigan Lottery's Fantasy 5 drawing and was doubly rewarded as a result.

In February, the woman, who declined revealing her name, stopped at the Mobil gas station on For Road in Dearborn to buy her weekly Fantasy 5 lottery ticket.

"I purchase a Fantasy 5 ticket every week for six drawings, and I always add the Double Play option," she told the Lottery.

This week, however, was a little different than most.

"I was out running errands and couldn't remember if I had any drawings left on my ticket at home, so I decided to purchase another one to be safe," she recalled.

The Fantasy 5 Double Play drawing on February 26 came and went, drawing the winning numbers 10, 17, 19, 25, and 26.

"After the drawing, I checked the ticket I had purchased that day and saw I'd matched all the numbers," the winner said in a press release. "That's when I remembered the other ticket, so I checked it to see if it covered the drawing that night. When I saw it did and I had won on both I couldn't believe it."

Playing it safe had secured the lucky Detroit resident a neat $110,000 prize, but that was not all she'd be pocketing.

"At first, I thought I had split the jackpot with myself until I realized I'd won $110,000 on each," the player remarked. "I was so excited I couldn't sit down the rest of the night!"

According to the Lottery, the 67-year-old had recently visited Lottery headquarters in Lansing to claim her two prizes and said that she plans on saving the winnings.

For an extra $1 per play, players can add the Double Play option to their Fantasy 5 ticket to participate in the nightly Double Play drawing, with the top prize for the Fantasy 5 Double Play drawing yielding $110,000, whereas non-jackpot Double Play prizes are doubled. Players who match all five Double Play numbers in a drawing win the top prize.

Fantasy 5 drawings take place every day at 7:29 pm EST. At $1 a play, players pick five numbers from 1 to 39 for a chance to win the rolling jackpot, which starts at $100,000.