News writer; Opinion columnist
It was a great year to be a lottery player in Michigan. Players in the Great Lakes State collected more than $3 billion in winnings and jackpots, including 53 who took home at least $1 million. That's a rate of one new millionaire lottery winner every week!
We broke down the biggest prizes, luckiest cities, and the games most likely to make you a millionaire!
Big winners
Michigan's new millionaires took home a total of $93 million in jackpots, with the biggest prize going to an anonymous 60-year-old man who cashed out a winning Lotto 47 ticket for $8.7 million. His lucky numbers were 07-16-18-27-39-40.
“I have been playing the Lottery for years and dreaming of winning big,” the player told ClickonDetroit.com.
I checked the ticket Sunday morning and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw I matched all the numbers. I called for my wife and had her look the ticket over to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Once my wife confirmed I won, she called for my son to have him triple-check the ticket, too. We were all stunned!
The player picked the right game to win a jackpot. Six players won at least one million dollars playing Lotto 47 in 2023 for a total payout of $20.19 million.
Powerball and Mega Millions
The other two big millionaire makers for lottery players were Powerball and Mega Millions. While no one in Michigan claimed one of the massive nine-figure jackpots, several came close enough to pocket at least one million.
Powerball created more millionaires than any other lottery game. Nine players cashed in seven-figure tickets for a grand total of $10 million.
Mega Millions wasn't far behind, paying out a total of $8 million to five different players.
Scratch to win
While the biggest individual payout came from a drawing game, scratch-off players also had plenty to celebrate.
Twenty-three players won at least $1 million on twenty different scratcher games. $300,000,000 Diamond Riches and Cashword Times 20 each had two million-dollar winners, while none of the others had more than one.
The biggest scratch-off prize in 2023 was $6,000,000, which was claimed by three different players. The big winning games were $300,000,000 Diamond Riches, which paid out two jackpots and (appropriately enough) $6,000,000 Jackpot.
In total, million-dollar scratch-off winners cashed out to the tune of $48.05 million.
Home of a winner
Four different cities produced two million-dollar winners. Travers City, Southfield, Livonia, and Grand Rapids all had double winners. Grand Rapids was first among equals since its winners collectively took him $7.4 million, which is more than all the other double-city winners combined.
Winning tickets were sold at two different 7-11s, but no individual store sold more than one million-dollar ticket.
And while they didn't hit it big with a seven-digit payout, 82 players did cash in for at least $100,000 by playing Fantasy Five. Overall, the 250 winners who took home six-figure prizes are probably feeling pretty good about their 2023 as well.
