A man in Michigan has won $500,000 from the first lottery ticket he’s ever bought.
He told Michigan Lottery officials he was a lottery novice when he purchased a Wild Side scratch-off card.
The Livingston County man had bought the ticket from the Fast Lane Convenience store on State Street in Saginaw which ended up being a lucky one.
“I had never played the lottery before, but I’ve seen my mom purchase tickets now and again, so I decided to buy one while I was at the store,” he said.
“I didn’t know how to play the game, so I took the ticket home and had my parents walk me through it. When we revealed the $500,000 prize, we didn’t think it was real.”
His parents joined him when they visited the lottery office to confirm the ticket.
He added: “When they confirmed it really was a $500,000 winner, we were in disbelief. I knew right then that this money was about to change my life. What makes it even more exciting is that today is my 21st birthday.”
The winner says some of his prize money will be paid towards his tuition and studying abroad.
It comes after a Powerball lottery ticket sold outside Flint won $842.2 million last month, the 10th largest jackpot in US history.
The draw on New Year’s Day went to a winning ticket bought in Grand Blanc, and the second-ever-largest jackpot won in the state. However, a winner has not yet come forward, which isn’t uncommon as sometimes they lose or misplace the winning ticket or do not realize their numbers came up.
A single ticket sold in Simpsonville, South Carolina, wasn’t claimed until six months later. They had won £1.54 billion and chose to receive a one-time lump sum of $877,783,124 instead of taking payments over 30 years.
The largest Powerball jackpot to date was from November 2022 at $2.04 billion. The winning ticket was sold at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena, California, north of Pasadena. The winner was named as Edwin Castro.
Comments are closed.