One man in Michigan nearly recently became an instant millionaire, after parlaying a purchased online lottery ticket into the $924,878 jackpot prize.
The lucky winner, a 60-year old resident of Oakland County, pocketed the massive six-figure jackpot following the Fantasy 5 drawing on January 17.
He’s decided to remain anonymous for now, but according to local lotto officials, the winner purchased his $1 ticket for Fantasy 5 via the MichiganLottery.com website.
One Buck + Five Numbers = Nearly $1 Million
Fantasy 5 players attempt to match five randomly drawn numbers between 1 and 39, and drawings are held nightly at 7:29 p.m. local time throughout Michigan.
But as he later told the Michigan Lottery, the regular Fantasy 5 player couldn’t wait until the next morning to see if his numbers had finally come in:
“I woke up in the middle of the night and decided to check my numbers.
When I saw I was the winner, I couldn’t believe it.
There was no going back to sleep for me!”
When he discovered his online ticket held the magic numbers of 02-04-27-29-33, the man realized he had beaten odds of 1 in 575,757 to claim the Fantasy 5 jackpot.
Asked about his plans for the unexpected windfall, the winner revealed that he would be leaving the workforce sooner than expected to enjoy the lap of luxury:
“Winning won’t change me or how I live, but retirement is going to come a little sooner now.”
The winner quickly paid a trip to Michigan Lottery headquarters to collect his life-changing fortune.
Online Lottery Ticket Sales Become Big Business in Michigan
The Wolverine State began selling tickets online via MichiganLottery.com in November of 2014.
Over the next two years, a pair of players pulled down $1 million jackpots courtesy of tickets purchased over the internet.
And in June of last year, 59-year old David Smith from Farmington Hills scored Michigan’s record-setting online lotto jackpot of $3 million while playing the Mega Millions game.
In a fortuitous twist of timing, the Pennsylvania Lottery began online ticket sales for nearly nationwide lottery games like Mega Millions and Powerball on January 17 – the same day Michigan’s big jackpot was triggered.
In a public statement on the launch of its “iLotto” program – which was legalized in late 2017 as part of a comprehensive statewide gambling expansion package – Pennsylvania Lottery Executive Director Drew Svitko explained the appeal of online purchase power:
“We are excited to announce that we are now selling Powerball and Mega Millions tickets online.
Selling lottery online is a big part of our effort to appeal to new customers and meet our players where they already are – which is online.
This is an important step that will help us continue generating funds to benefit older Pennsylvanians.”
January’s iLotto launch made Pennsylvania the only American state where both casino games and lottery tickets can be wagered on over the internet.
