Lucky player took a chance and veered out of her comfort zone
By Kate Northrop
JACKSON, Mich. — A Michigan woman veered out of her comfort zone and bought a more expensive lottery ticket than usual, which ended up winning her a $4 million top prize.
A Michigan resident took a chance and increased her usual lottery purchase amount to win a $4 million top prize in an instant game.
The 48-year-old winner, who chose to remain anonymous, is not a routine lottery player, but it took just one higher-than-usual purchase to snag a $4 million payday.
"I randomly buy scratch-off tickets every few months," the player told the Michigan Lottery. "Usually, I buy $1 or $2 tickets, but when I was at the store, I decided to take a chance on the 'World Class Millions' game.
She purchased the winning ticket for $30 at Royal Liquor Food Market on West Prospect Street in Jackson.
"I scratched it when I got home, and when I saw I won $4 million, I showed my mom and said: 'Am I reading this right?'"
Although she herself is not a regular lottery player, there is someone special in her heart that is.
"Before my dad passed, he would always buy me scratch-off tickets, so I can't help but think this is a gift from him!" the winner remarked.
The Jackson County resident visited Lottery headquarters in Lansing recently to claim the big prize, which she chose to receive as a one-time lump sum payment of about $2.7 million. She plans on donating some of the winnings and saving the rest.
"I plan to continue working, and when the time comes, I am going to use my winnings as a financial cushion for retirement," she added.
The lucky winner won the first of three available top prizes of $4 million in the $30 "World Class Millions" game, which launched in June 2023. There are also 13 out of 24 second-tier prizes of $15,000 and 130 out of 230 third-tier prizes of $5,000 remaining.
According to the Lottery, players have won more than $73 million playing the game, and over $91 million in prizes are still waiting to be won.
The overall odds of winning any prize in "World Class Millions" are 1 in 3.41.
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I am looking at the ticket and I have no idea it's a winning ticket.
I have never played scratch off cards - so where do I need to look?
See the number 28 in the "World Class Numbers" section matches the 28 on the main playing board. And in the main playing board you can see "4MIL" listed under the 28, meaning the prize for the match is $4 million.
Aaah, thanks Todd, I see that.
I have seen a few posts here where the winner of a scratch card game gave the ticket to the cashier to check if it's a winning ticket.
This one doesn't look so hard to tell (now that you have pointed it out 🤣)
There are those that have frogs and bats and spiders - a different story altogether.
Well, there is one other way that is much quicker. The bottom of the ticket has a rectangular bar code, which you can see on the photo of the ticket in the story. Most state lotteries have an app that can scan the code and instantly tell you if it's a winner. Personally, after manually checking the ticket myself I always scan the code just to be sure I didn't miss anything.
If Todd has to scan the ticket to make sure there is nothing missed, then really some of the scratch card games can be hard to determine a winning ticket.
Am glad the other non scratch card games are pretty simple to determine a winner.
Sounds like more than coincidence. It must have been for her.
Congrats!