Lottery Player Won $25,000 Every Year for the Rest of His Life!

Imagine buying a lottery ticket and winning not just a lump sum of money, but $25,000 every year for the rest of your life. Sounds like a dream come true, right?

For one lucky lottery player, this became a reality thanks to a fortunate mistake made during the ticket-printing process. This is what happened.

Lottery Player Won $25.000 for the Rest of His Life

Michael Sopejstal, a 60-year-old man from Illinois, won $25,000 a year for life by playing the lottery game Lucky For Life in Michigan. He purchased his winning ticket, which featured the numbers 11, 15, 17, 24, and 48, at the GoLo gas station in New Buffalo, Michigan. His winning ticket was announced on September 17.

Sopejstal attributed a clerk’s mistake to his significant win. He told Michigan Lottery: “I always get a Lucky for Life ticket for 10 or 20 draws while I’m here. I asked the retailer for a ticket for 10 draws, but he accidentally printed a ticket with 10 lines for one draw, but I told him I still wanted it.”

He went on to say: “I checked my ticket one morning and saw that I had won $25,000 a year for life. I immediately started thinking about all the things I could do with the money and whether I wanted to take the lump sum or annuity option. It was an amazing feeling!”

What Happened Next?

Sopejstal visited the Michigan Lottery headquarters to claim his prize. He chose to receive a lump sum of $390,000 instead of $25,000 annually for 20 years of life. He intends to travel and save the rest of his winnings. The lottery player despite living in Illinois, regularly visits Michigan every few weeks to dine at his favorite restaurant.

How Can You Win?

Lucky For Life tickets are priced at $2 each, offering prizes from $3 to $1,000 daily for life. To win the top prize, players must match all five winning numbers (ranging from 1 to 48) and a Lucky Ball (ranging from 1 to 18). Matching all five numbers but not the Lucky Ball still yields a prize of $25,000 annually for life.

The Lucky For Life drawings occur daily at 10:38 p.m. Sopejstal’s odds of winning his prize on September 17 were calculated at 1 in over 1.8 million, as per the game’s website.

What would you have done if you were a lottery player who won $25.000?

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