"Winning this prize means my husband can retire and we can relax," said the lucky 69-year-old woman
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/michigan-lottery-winner-32726-860ebc0c48ce4731be653784e36267ae.jpg "Lottery Number Balls, Michigan Lottery Winner")
Credit: Getty; Michigan Lottery
NEED TO KNOW
- A Michigan woman won a $1.2 million jackpot earlier this month
- The 69-year-old winner always plays the same numbers, and told lottery officials she recognized the winning numbers right away
- Thanks to the sum, the woman said her husband can retire
A Michigan woman couldn't believe her luck when she realized she'd won a massive jackpot using the same numbers she'd played for years.
The lucky 69-year-old player, who chose to remain anonymous, had a 1 in 10,737,573 chance of hitting the Lotto 47 jackpot, according to Michigan Lottery officials — and with her play of 02-16-18-19-26-42 in the March 11 drawing, she matched all six numbers to win a $1.2 million jackpot.
“I’ve been playing the same set of Lotto 47 numbers for years, so when I checked the winning numbers after the drawing, I recognized them right away,” the woman said.
Of course, she had to share the good news with somebody right away.
“I woke my husband up and said, ‘I think I just won the lottery,' " she said. "We got my ticket and looked it over and that’s when I knew I really had just won."
As for the future, it looks very bright.
“Winning this prize means my husband can retire and we can relax and just enjoy life,” the woman, who ended up walking away with about $832,000, told lottery officials.
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While the Michigan woman was the only player to win the jackpot on the March 11 drawing, hundreds of others walked away with prizes ranging from $5 to $5,000, according to lottery officials.
Lotto 47 was established in 2005, according to the Lotto Database, and drawings take place on Wednesday and Saturday at 7:29 p.m. local time.
If you or someone you know is struggling with a gambling problem, please contact the National Problem Gambling Helpline Network at 1-800-522-4700 or go to gamtalk.org.
