Livingston Man’s Scratch-Off Play Makes Him Latest Michigan Lottery Millionaire

A sketch from “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” imagines what the world would be like if everyone had superpowers, thus making seemingly ordinary people extraordinary. It’s almost getting to that point with the number of Michigan Lottery millionaires this year.

A Livingston man has just joined the club, for which it seems there are new members all the time. There’s no telling how long this run of success for Michiganders will last.

The newest member of the Michigan Lottery millionaires group

Unlike most of the previous winners of prizes of this size, this win came via a scratch-off ticket. Ruby Mine, to be exact. The anonymous 43-year-old man explained to the lottery what happened.

“I stopped at the BP to turn in some winning tickets and bought three $10 tickets,” the player said. “I won $80 on two tickets but didn’t win on the Ruby Mine game.”

“I went back in the store, bought one Ruby Mine ticket and one $30 ticket. I scratched the ticket in the store and ran to the cashier when I saw the ‘1MIL’ symbol.”

“I showed it to the clerk and said: ‘Is this what I think it is?’ We were both so excited! She scanned the ticket on her lottery machine and confirmed it was a winner.”

That BP is on S Old 23 in Brighton, and the winner claimed his prize at the MI Lottery’s headquarters. He opted for the lump sum payout of $634,000. He said he intends to buy a home and pay some other bills.

“I had just put in an application for a mortgage on a vacation property for my family. Calling the bank to let them know I would be paying cash was the best feeling,” the player said.

Thirty-five players won prizes worth at least $1 million playing lottery games in MI last year. Could 2021 surpass that mark? Right now, the odds look good.

2021 an unprecedented year for lottery players in MI

With more than half of the year still to go, the number of prizes worth at least a million dollars won playing MI Lottery games is pushing two dozen. If players continue that pace, they’ll easily top the number of such winners in 2020.

Whether that’s likely to happen is hard to say, though. The odds of winning such prizes in these games are quite long. For example, half of the million-dollar prizes in Ruby Mine are now gone. Also, the odds of winning a $1 million prize playing Mega Millions is 1 in 12,607,306.

Despite long odds like that, it’s been a banner year for Michiganders playing the lottery. If the pace keeps up, it could be a record year for new millionaires.