Winner never scratches off the prize amounts on winning lottery tickets
By Kate Northrop
WATERFORD, Mich. — A Michigan man revealed that he purposefully did not scratch off the prize amount on his winning lottery ticket, and as a result, he ended up waiting three months to find out that it was worth $4 million.
A Michigan lottery player did not find out about his $4 million top prize win on a Michigan Lottery scratch-off ticket for three months because he intentionally does not reveal the prize amount on his winning tickets.
The 59-year-old, who chose to remain anonymous, described his reasoning by telling the story from the very beginning. Over three months ago, he visited the Marathon gas station on West Walton Boulevard in Waterford and picked out a $30 "Millionaire's Club" scratch-off ticket.
While his method might leave other players scratching their heads wondering how he can bear the suspense, he explained that he enjoys the feeling of surprise that waiting to reveal the prize brings.
"When I play instant games, I never scratch off the amounts, even if I win, because I like the surprise of finding out the winning amount when I take it to a store to cash it," the player told the Lottery. "When I scratched my 'Millionaire's Club' ticket, I saw I won, but per usual, I didn't scratch the amount. I put the ticket in a drawer to keep it for the next time I needed some extra cash."
Months passed before he remembered he had a winning ticket sitting in the drawer, despite still not knowing the prize amount.
"About three months later, I remembered I still had the ticket, and I took it to the store to cash it," the Oakland County resident continued. "I got a message to file a claim at the Lottery office, so I finally scratched the amount. When I saw it was a $4 million winner, I was amazed. I couldn't even fathom it."
He visited Lottery headquarters in Lansing to claim the prize and chose to receive it as a one-time lump sum payment of about $2.7 million. The winnings will give him a fresh start to a new opportunity – he plans on investing the money and using it to start a business.
"It's been very hard to wrap my head around!" he added.
Now that he has claimed the second $4 million top prize in the $30 "Millionaire's Club" game, which launched in February 2023, just one more top prize remains. There are also ten out of 22 second-tier prizes of $10,000 and 132 out of 331 third-tier prizes of $2,000 left to claim.
So far, according to the Lottery, players have won more than $96 million playing "Millionaire's Club."
The overall odds of winning any prize in the game are 1 in 3.21.
Confused, when you scan the ticket it says "Winner" then amount, how he didn't know the amount.
Congrats to him, enjoy.
Whatever works
I think for claims that can't be paid at the retailer it just says to check with the lottery or claim center or something and not the amount. I wish I knew what the exact message said for winners over $600, but alas I haven't had one yet.
Because he didn't scratch the area below the matching number which would have revealed the amount won.
He knew he had won but just not how much.
Most people would want to know the amount right away.
Instant Gratification it's called/no waiting needed to find out how much.
I've known people to play like that. Some try to even scratch only one number, like a 2 instead of 24, in their minds at least the 2 would hold a stronger possibility that they are a winner. Some people like to make it more fun. Some go through the trash to find winners. Some play quick picks only and never even look at them. Never want to know until after. We're not all robots, you know. My question is this though, did he buy only one $30 scratcher? That would make it interesting.