Family, friends tip Michigan woman she won a $3.98m jackpot

• Local woman is tipped off by family and friends that she may have won a huge jackpot from the Lotto 47
• They were right, as the winner, who chose to stay anonymous, found out that she had secured $3.98m from the Lotto 47 game
• She opted for the lump payment option, which amounted to $2.7m after tax

The Michigan Lottery has minted another big-time winner with a single ticket scooping up a $3.98m jackpot from the Lotto 47 draw on February 21. The story was only publicized by the lottery recently.

Michigan Lottery crowns a winner who didn’t suspect she had won

Yet, the way the winner found out is not as straightforward as that. In fact, the woman who bought the ticket had to be tipped by friends and family to check if she had won, as she had forgotten.

While the lottery was unable to release the name of the winner, it could provide further details about how the whole story unfolded, and caught up with the winner for a brief interview.

The woman told it as it happened. A day after the draw, on February 24, she started getting calls from friends and family, who told her that a large jackpot had just been won from the Lotto 47 game in Bryan’s Market, where she is based.

People were curious to find out if the woman and her husband, who have been playing the lottery together for years, were indeed the winners. The woman’s curiosity was piqued, but she dismissed the possibility of having won, knowing that the odds would be too great. Then, realization dawned:

"I grabbed several Lotto 47 tickets out of my wallet and started scanning them on the Michigan Lottery app. When I was about halfway through the pile, the screen lit up, and $3.98 million came up on the scanner. I was in complete shock. It's the kind of feeling that makes you want to break down and cry."

Michigan is frequently the site of jackpot wins - recently, Powerball’s

The woman had opted for the lump sum and claimed the money immediately, resulting in a $2.7m payout. Most lottery winners go for the flat cash sum rather than the annuity, which is greater over the long term, but against which financial specialists advise.

This is not the first time in recent weeks that Michigan has become a center of exciting lottery wins. A lottery club in Michigan scored a million-dollar prize from a Powerball ticket.

The fortunate three-member club matched five white balls to win a $1m prize from Powerball, the Michigan Lottery announced last month.

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