Great Lakes Wire

A Monroe County woman has won $500,000 by playing the Michigan Lottery's Fantastic 5’s instant game. The 62-year-old winner, who prefers to remain anonymous, decided to purchase the ticket after checking the remaining prizes page on MichiganLottery.com and noticing that all three top prizes for Fantastic 5’s were still available.

“I look at the remaining prizes page on MichiganLottery.com to see which games have top prizes that haven’t been claimed and saw Fantastic 5’s had all three top prizes left which is why I bought the ticket,” she said. She recalled scratching off her ticket while having coffee before work and was surprised by her win. “When I saw I’d won $500,000, I think I turned green! It was awesome and my husband and I truly could not believe it.”

The winning ticket was purchased at Tony’s Country Store in Lambertville, located about 40 miles south of Ann Arbor. The winner has already visited Lottery headquarters to claim her prize and plans to use her winnings to pay bills and save the rest.

Fantastic 5’s launched in July 2024, offering players a chance to win between $5 and $500,000 per $5 ticket. So far, players have won over $12 million from this game, with more than $19 million in prizes still available. This includes two remaining top prizes of $500,000 each.

In 2024 alone, nearly $1.8 billion was awarded through lottery instant games across the state.