Lottery player forgets to scratch entire ticket, nearly missing fortune worth millions

Lottery officials are encouraging players to double check their tickets after a player almost didn’t realize he had won millions in Michigan.

Luckily, the man from Macomb County kept his ticket, later seeing he won the jackpot in the Magnificent Millions game.

“When I play instant games, I skip around when I scratch the ticket off,” he told Michigan Lottery officials in a Feb. 6 news release. “I thought I had scratched everything off and didn’t see any winning matches, so I tossed the ticket aside.”

The 43-year-old player, who purchased his ticket at a convenience store in Warren, held on to it and scanned it at a gas station to make sure he “hadn’t missed anything.”

He did — in the most unimaginable way.

“When I scanned it and got the message to file a claim, I knew I had missed something on the ticket,” the winner, who remained anonymous, told lottery officials. “When I looked it over again, I saw a spot I forgot to scratch. When I revealed I was a $4 million winner I went numb!”

Magnificent Millions costs $30 to play and offers three jackpot prizes of $4 million.

The winner chose the one-time lump-sum payment of $2.7 million, and he said he plans to put his new fortune into savings.

“This incredible story is a great reminder to always double check your tickets to make sure you don’t miss a winner,” Michigan Lottery Commissioner Suzanna Shkreli said in a statement.

Warren is a northern suburb of Detroit.

This story was originally published February 6, 2025 at 8:53 AM with the headline "Lottery player forgets to scratch entire ticket, nearly missing fortune worth millions."