76-year-old lottery player becomes millionaire in Michigan. ‘I was so happy’

ALGONAC, Michigan — A 76-year-old man won a huge lottery jackpot in Michigan.

The St. Clair County man said he is looking forward to retiring after winning a $1.35 million jackpot playing the Diamond Wild Time Progressive Fast Cash game, according to a November 3 news release from the Michigan Lottery.

The man bought the ticket, which ranges in price from $2 per play to $30 per play, at a store in Algonac.

“I saw the Fast Cash jackpot was over $1 million, so I bought a ticket,” the man told lottery officials.

The man said he needed confirmation of the win.

“I looked the ticket over when I got home and saw a match with ‘Jackpot’ underneath, but I had to scan the ticket on the Lottery app to double-check it. I was so happy and excited when the scanner confirmed my $1.35 million win,” he said.

The total jackpot was for $2.7 million, and the man won half of it, lottery officials said.

As of November 3, the jackpot sits at $1.7 million.

Algonac is about a 50-mile drive northeast from Detroit.

By JENNIFER RODRIGUEZ/McClatchy News

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John F. McCarthy is a veteran journalist in the Caribbean, writing from the "Decision Space" where survival meets the surreal. His reporting steel was tempered by a lineage of legendary editors and broadcasters, including Ed Wynn Brant (The Bomb), Owen Eschenroder (Ann Arbor News), Lynelle Emanuel (BVI Beacon), and Charles Thanas (WSVI-TV). Alongside longtime colleague Kenneth C. "Casey" Clark, McCarthy has navigated the front lines of the territory’s history—from the 1997 volcanic "snow" to every major hurricane since Hugo. Known for leaning out of doorless helicopters to capture the "money shot," McCarthy now edits the V.I. Free Press, providing the essential link between the island's colonial past and its SpaceX future.