That’s a Lot of Scratch! Michigan Man Wins $4 Million in Diamond 7’s Instant Game

A Macomb County man became the latest big winner in the Michigan Lottery through Diamond 7’s. And by big, we mean big — the biggest since July, and one of the biggest all year.

After purchasing a ticket in the Diamond 7’s scratch-off game at the 18-Dequindre Convenience store in Sterling Heights on Sept. 1, the lucky player won the top prize of $4 million.

Michigan Lottery winner double-checks result to confirm; partying begins

The winner chose to remain anonymous, although the 33-year-old did speak with the Michigan Lottery about his good fortune.

“I like to play a variety of instant games,” he explained, adding how he had decided to play the Diamond 7’s game because it was a relatively new addition to the scratch game selection.

Costing $30 to play, Diamond 7s just launched in August. The prizes start at $30, with players having a 1 in 3.47 chance of at least winning their money back. Prizes range upwards from there to $15,000, then leapfrog to the $4 million top prize. Just three tickets will award that $4 million bounty, and the man from Macomb County just claimed the first of those three.

“I scanned the ticket and got a message to file a claim, so I took it home to have a family member scan it on their Lottery app,” he explained.

The Michigan Lottery mobile app not only allows users to scan their tickets to see if they are winners, but also offers online games with cash prizes and even the ability to purchase lottery tickets right in the app.

The family member initially looked over the ticket and said the player had won $500. However, that wasn’t quite correct.

“Once we scanned it on the app and saw it was a $4 million winning ticket, we were shocked,” he said. “It turned into a party!”

Diamond 7’s win follows other seven-figure scores in scratch-off games

Upon visiting Michigan Lottery headquarters in Lansing to collect his prize, the man opted to take his winnings as a lump sum of $2.5 million rather than receive the full $4 million over the course of 30 yearly payments.

According to the Michigan Lottery, players have already won more than $23 million playing Diamond 7’s. There is still more than $128 million in prizes left, including the two other $4 million top prizes.

The news comes on the heels of last week’s story of a Tuscola County woman winning $1 million in Ruby Mine, another Michigan Lottery scratch-off game. Someone else won $1 million last week playing Red Hot Millions, yet another scratch-off game.

The year’s biggest winner in the Michigan Lottery remains the four-member Oakland County Lottery Club, who won $1.05 billion through Mega Millions in a January drawing of the multi-jurisdictional game.