There’s absolutely nothing wrong with buying yourself a birthday gift, as no one knows better exactly what it is you want. A birthday lottery ticket for one Wayne County woman ended up being a gift that will keep on giving.
Her Lotto 47 ticket matched all six numbers in the Jan. 9, 2021, drawing. That landed the $1.2 million progressive jackpot and made her 57th birthday arguably the best of her life.
Details of the Lotto 47 birthday win
The thus-far anonymous Wayne County woman stopped off at the Citgo Gas Station on 11 Mile Rd. in Battle Creek on Jan. 8. That turned out to be a fateful decision of the good kind. Her play of 13-14-16-29-31-35 hit across the board the next day.
“I was heading to the casino to celebrate my birthday and stopped to purchase a Lotto 47 ticket,” the jackpot winner said.
“I checked my ticket the next week and when I saw I had matched all six of my numbers I thought: ‘That can’t be right.’ I used the ticket scanner on the Lottery app to scan my ticket, which confirmed my $1.2 million prize. I was in complete shock. I’ve always said my dream is to win $1 million and it finally came true!”
She opted for the lump sum payout at a MI Lottery Claim Center. After taxes, that came to $761,421. She told the MI lottery she plans to buy a new car, donate some of the money to charity, and invest the rest.
It’s an astounding return on a wager of as little as $1. Players can add some additional action to their Lotto 47 tickets by adding Double Play and EZMatch to their tickets for an extra dollar each. Double Play awards a spot in a second-chance drawing. EZMatch is an instant-win feature, with a $500 prize. Drawings for Lotto 47 happen every Wednesday and Saturday at 7:29 p.m.
Whether players purchase their Lotto 47 tickets in person or online, they would do well to emulate this woman’s conduct after winning. Thus far, she has started off her 57th year of life doing seemingly everything right.
Avoiding the potential pitfalls of winning large lottery prizes
As important as it is to only spend what you can easily afford to lose playing any lottery game is what you do after you win a prize of this size. The first thing this woman did right is keeping her identity a secret.
That affords you protection from old “friends” and relatives coming out of the woodwork looking for money. There’s more to it than that, though. Staying anonymous also helps keep you safe from con artists who target lottery winners.
Another wise move in this situation was her decision to invest most of the money. In fact, you should hire a financial advisor right away after you win a big lottery prize. That way, your money grows over time instead of depleting.
If invested wisely, the jackpot should give this woman many more happy birthdays. She probably will never forget her 57th, though.
