An Oakland County man who inadvertently bought a ticket for a Detroit Lions-themed lottery game won over $1 million dollars thanks to his mistake.
The 68-year-old winner recently claimed his $1.05 million prize after hitting the jackpot on the Michigan’s Lottery’s Detroit Lions Rush For Riches game.
The winner, who chose to remain anonymous, said he always buys lottery tickets when the Michigan Lottery’s Fast Cash instant-win jackpot is over $700,000, according to Michigan Lottery Connect.
On June 6, he bought a ticket from the Speedway gas station on Pontiac Trail in South Lyon.
“When I buy Fast Cash tickets, I hand the cashier money and tell them to give me any of the Fast Cash games, but lately I’ve been saying any except the Detroit Lions game because I hadn’t been having luck with it,” the player said. “I forgot to tell the cashier that this time, and the Detroit Lions game is what he printed for me.”
He folded the ticket and put it in his pocket until the next day.
“The next morning when I looked over the ticket and saw I’d won the jackpot, I stopped my wife as she was walking by, handed her the ticket, and said: ‘You’re not going to believe this!’” the man said. “Once she saw what I’d won, she started crying. It was an exciting and emotional day for us.”
The lucky player said he plans to use his winnings to take care of his family, Lottery officials said.
“All I’ve been thinking since winning is how glad I am that I forgot to tell the cashier not to give me the Detroit Lions game!” the winner added.
The Michigan Lottery’s 13 Fast Cash games are printed from the terminals of Lottery retailers. Tickets range in price from $2 per play to $30 per play. Prizes range from $5 to a progressive jackpot, meaning the total increases with each ticket sold, until someone wins it.
In 2025, Michigan Lottery players won more than $54 million playing Fast Cash games.
Odds of winning any amount in the Detroit Lions Rush For Riches game are 1 in 3. Odds of hitting the jackpot are 1 in 600,000.
mreinhart@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Michigan man wins $1 million after buying ticket for wrong lottery game
Reporting by Max Reinhart, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Max Reinhart, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
