Reinvesting lottery wins pays off

By Kate Northrop

ESCANABA, Mich­. — A Michigan woman thought her account was hacked when she logged in to the Michigan Lottery's website and found a $25,000 a year for life Lucky for Life prize waiting for her.

An online Michigan lottery player thought that the $25,000 a year for life Lucky for Life prize displayed on her screen was either a mistake or the result of someone hacking her account.

It was no trick — Patricia Royer, of Escanaba, won the second-tier prize in Lucky for Life when her ticket matched all five white ball numbers in the March 12 drawing, which were 3, 13, 24, 36, and 44, just missing the Lucky Ball 10 to win the top prize of $7,000 a week for life.

Royer explained that she had bought her winning ticket online and was using funds from a previous win to enter more drawings.

"My husband and I started playing Lucky for Life about a year ago, and we have loved playing it ever since," Royer told the Lottery. "I won $200 a few months ago, so I have been using that to buy more tickets."

In Royer's case, it paid off to keep playing. She received quite the shock when she checked her tickets the next day, going so far as to believe someone had tampered with her account.

"The morning after the drawing, I was having a cup of coffee and logged in to see if I won anything," she recalled. "When I saw I won $25,000 a year for life I said: 'This can't be real!' I thought someone hacked my account, so I logged out and logged back in. When the prize was still in my balance, I called my son, and he told me it had to be real. I still can't fathom winning! It is unbelievable."

After receiving confirmation that the win was indeed legitimate, the 65-year-old visited Lottery headquarters in Lansing to claim the prize. Rather than taking the prize as payments of $25,000 a year for 20 years or life, whichever is greater, she opted to claim the winnings as a one-time lump sum of $390,000.

Royer wants this prize to go a long way, so she'll use part of her winnings to start a scholarship on behalf of a loved one who recently passed away. She'll then save whatever is left over.

The odds of winning the second-tier Lucky for Life prize of $25,000 a year for life are 1 in 1,813,028.

Lucky for Life drawings take place every day at 10:38 pm EST. Tickets cost $2 each. All winning numbers, odds and prize amounts can be found on Lottery Post's Multi-State Lottery Results page.

(Click to display full-size in gallery)Patricia Royer, of Escanaba, Michigan, won $25,000 a year for life in Lucky for Life when her ticket matched all five white ball numbers in the March 12 drawing.