What do a Genesee County woman and a Wayne County man have in common? Besides both being Michiganders, they both recently became Michigan Lottery millionaires playing instant-win games.
Although they won their seven-figure prizes playing different scratcher games, both winners collected their prizes this week. Their good fortune also continues this year’s push to be very lucrative for players.
The stories of the newest Michigan Lottery millionaires
Earlier this week, the anonymous Wayne County man recounted a premonition about his win.
“I love playing the Lottery,” said the 32-year-old winner, from a $20 Millionaire Maker II ticket at the Caboose Wine Shop on Holbrook St. in Hamtramck. “I have always told my wife that I would win big, but she never believed me. I had a dream one night that I won a large lottery prize. I didn’t think much of it and went to the store the next day to buy some tickets.
“When I got in my car, I started scratching them. I saw I matched the number ‘04’ right away and thought I’d probably won $100. When I revealed the ‘$1MIL’ symbol, I thought I was still dreaming. I called my wife immediately to tell her the good news!”
He made a believer out of his wife, and took the lump sum of $634,000. With the money, he plans to purchase a new car and home.
Around the same time, the Genesee County woman made the same decision to take a lump sum of the same value off a $10 Cash Game ticket. She didn’t have any nocturnal insight into the win, however.
For her, it was more about teamwork.
“While I was at the store, I asked the clerk to pick some lottery tickets for me,” the 47-year-old woman stated. “I was on my lunch break and decided to scratch them before heading back into work. When I realized I’d won $1 million, I thought for sure I was reading the ticket wrong. I couldn’t believe it!”
The store she referred to is the Miller Point Mart on Miller Road in Flint. She plans to take a vacation, then invest the rest of the money. She isn’t the only one to make such plans, just one of the most recent in MI.
2021 continues creeping up toward new highs
With these wins, the number of MI Lottery players to win prizes of seven or more figures now stands at 46 for 2021. With still more than two full months left in the year, 2021 is now just two such wins short of matching 2020’s total.
This year still has work ahead of it in terms of setting a record in that regard, however. The 2019 calendar year saw 57 such winners. At the current pace (78.6% through the year), 2021 is just ahead of that record number (80.7% of the way to 57).
But records and targets don’t mean much to individual winners like these folks. They’re happy to be part of that crowd, regardless of how large it gets.