Michigan $1M Winning Lottery Ticket Saved from Trash

Posted on: March 7, 2023, 08:57h. 

Last updated on: March 7, 2023, 12:26h.

Ed Silverstein @casinoorgedsilv Read More
Expertise: Legal, Tribal Gaming.

A Michigan woman recently went to toss two scratch-off lottery tickets into the garbage. Thankfully, she checked the numbers one last time before she did. That turned out to be a wise and profitable decision.

The door to the Michigan Lottery office
The door to the Michigan Lottery office, pictured above. A woman almost tossed out a winning lottery ticket. Instead, she checked it one last time and went to the lottery office to claim her prize. (Image: CNN)

The 30-year-old Clinton County resident scooped the tickets out of a bag filled with trash and checked the numbers one last time. To her surprise, one of the tickets had a $1 million prize.

When I saw I’d won $1 million, my heart started racing and I thought I was going to faint,” she recalled in a statement released on Monday by the Michigan Lottery. “I am so glad I decided to look the ticket over again before throwing it away.”

The unnamed woman purchased the scratch-off tickets the night before for $10 each at Hansen’s Quik Stop in Ovid, Mich. She said she decided to buy two of the Sizzling Hot 7’s tickets because it’s a newer game.

The woman opted to take her winnings as a lump sum payment of about $693K rather than taking the $1M in 30 payments. She plans to use her winnings to buy a house and invest money for the future.

Plays Instant Games

The lottery winner said she regularly plays new instant lottery games when they come out each month. The Sizzling Hot 7’s game began in January. Since its launch, Sizzling Hot 7’s has given out more than $15 million. Prizes range from $10 up to $1 million.

On the ticket’s main playing area, gamblers can look to match any of their numbers to any of the hot numbers for a chance to win the prize shown for that number. If the matching “your number” area is red, the player wins double that prize amount. If the ticket shows a red “Flaming 7” symbol, the player will win $50.

The overall odds to win are 1 in 3.77.

Check Those Tickets

The Michigan example isn’t the first time a winning lottery ticket nearly wound up in the garbage.

In 2021, a customer glanced at a lottery ticket too quickly at a Massachusetts convenience store. She thought it was a losing ticket and threw it away.

The son of the store’s owners checked the ticket one last time. It, too, was a $1M winner. He took it to the customer, and she won the jackpot.