A Michigan man plans to retire early after he won a $2 million lottery prize.
The 66-year-old player from St. Joseph County said he won after deciding to buy a $2,000,000 Lucky scratch-off ticket, which is a newer Michigan lottery game.
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“I typically only play $5 and $10 tickets, but $2,000,000 Lucky was one of the newer games at the store I usually go to, so I gave it a try,” said the player, who decided to stay anonymous. “Game five was the last part of the ticket I scratched, so when I revealed the first ‘$2MIL’ symbol, I thought: ‘Well this ticket is a loser,’ because I never thought I’d actually win the $2 million top prize.”
But after he scratched off another “$2MIL symbol” on the ticket, he headed back into the store to get it scanned.
The worker gave him a slip that said to file a claim at the Michigan Lottery office.
“That’s when I knew I just won $2 million,” the man said.
He purchased the winning ticket at Lightning Quick Gas N Go #11 at 1560 East Chicago Road in Sturgis. Sturgis is located about 40 miles southeast of Kalamazoo.
The man decided to claim his prize as a one-time lump sum payment of around $1.3 million.
He plans to use his prize money to travel and then retire early.
“Although I’m still trying to wrap my head around winning $2 million, it’s nice to know my wife and I will now be able to retire earlier than we planned,” the player told Michigan Lottery officials.
The $2,000,000 Lucky game came out in May. Since then, people have won more than $27 million playing the instant game. Prizes range from $20 to $2 million.