An American from Illinois won a “Lucky for Life” lottery drawing that gave him $25,000 a year for life due to an error by the retailer who sold him his ticket.
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The man in question, Michael Sopejstal, is used to buying tickets for 10 or 20 different drawings, but on September 17, the employee at the store he was at made a mistake by buying a ticket with 10 tickets for a single one drawing, he reports to CNN.
Mr. Sopejstal informed him that he still wanted to buy this ticket despite the error.
It was one of those number combinations that allowed him to win his prize.
“One morning I looked at my ticket and saw that I had been making $25,000 a year for my life,” he said. I immediately started thinking about what I could do with the money and whether I would opt for a lump sum payment or an annual payment.”
Mr. Sopejstal ultimately chose the sum of $390,000 in a single payment, the Michigan Lottery said in a news release.
He plans to use this money for travel and put the rest aside.
His odds of winning on September 17th were 1 in 1.8 million.