Game delivers jackpot to player who usually shoos it away
By Kate Northrop
SOUTH LYON, Mich. — A Michigan lottery player who avoided a certain Fast Play game for a long while had his suspicions dashed when a casual selection by a convenience store cashier won him a $1.05 million jackpot.
A Michigan man experienced a truly lucky break with a $1.05 million Fast Play jackpot that may have permanently changed his mind about one lottery game in particular.
The Oakland County resident, who chose to remain anonymous, told Michigan Lottery officials about his lottery habits, which usually involve playing a certain type of game when the jackpot is high enough but avoiding one game altogether.
"Whenever I stop to get gas and the Fast Cash jackpot is over $700,000, I'll buy a few tickets," the 68-year-old player said in a press release.
That day, the Fast Play jackpot was sitting at $1.05 million. He stopped at the Speedway gas station on Pontiac Trail in South Lyon to get his plays in.
"When I buy Fast Cash tickets, I hand the cashier money and tell them to give me any of the Fast Cash games, but lately I've been saying any except the 'Detroit Lions' game because I hadn't been having luck with it. I forgot to tell the cashier that this time, and the 'Detroit Lions' game is what he printed for me. I never check my tickets right away, so I folded it up and put it in my pocket."
"The next morning when I looked over the ticket and saw I'd won the jackpot, I stopped my wife as she was walking by, handed her the ticket, and said: 'You're not going to believe this!'" he continued. "Once she saw what I'd won, she started crying. It was an exciting and emotional day for us."
He recently visited Lottery headquarters in Lansing to claim his winnings, which he says he plans to use to take care of his family.
"All I've been thinking since winning is how glad I am that I forgot to tell the cashier not to give me the Detroit Lions game!" he remarked.
The Michigan Lottery's Fast Cash games are available from terminals at Lottery retailers, with ticket prices ranging from $2 up to $30 per play.
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Just hopes that he did repay that clerk BIG with nothing le$$ than 10k.
Michigan lottery needs to be investigated. Most if not all of the big winners comes from Oakland, Wayne, and Macomb counties. Playing any type of big game or scratch off seems like a waste of money since all of the jackpots are only found there.
* How does one go about * investigating a random pick?