This player has all the luck

By Kate Northrop

HOUGHTON LAKE, Mich. — A Michigan woman is double-lucky after a bonus credit she won from the Michigan Lottery turned into a $100,000 Powerball prize.

Bonnie Zabel, 54, is happy she took advantage of a free credit awarded to her upon logging into her account on the Michigan Lottery's website — she became $100,000 richer because of it.

Last month, the Houghton Lake resident accessed her online Michigan Lottery account and was given a free spin in the Daily Spin to Win game. Each day a player logs in on the Lottery's website, they are given a chance to spin a digital prize wheel that can award bonus credit for online play, retail free play, or entries into a monthly $5,000 giveaway.

"I logged on to my account to do my Daily Spin to Win spin and won an online bonus, so I decided to use it towards the purchase of some Powerball tickets," Zabel explained. "The next morning, I had two emails from the Lottery. One was notifying me that I'd won a $4 prize, and the other was a prize notification I had never seen before."

Zabel put the free credit toward a lottery ticket for the Powerball drawing on May 16 and had won a $50,000 prize by matching four of the white balls and the Powerball. The winning numbers in the drawing were 7, 15, 22, 36, and 64, with Powerball 13.

Luckily, she had also added on the Power Play option for an extra $1. With the 2X multiplier, her prize was doubled to $100,000.

"I logged on to my account and that's when I saw my balance was $100,004," the winner told the Lottery. "I woke my husband up right away to tell him the good news!"

Upon claiming her prize at Lottery headquarters in Lansing, she said she plans to pay bills and then save the remainder.

Powerball drawings take place on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday at 10:59 pm EST. The jackpot for Saturday's drawing currently stands at $184 million.

Michigan lottery players can buy Powerball lottery tickets online here.