60-year-old Michael Sopejstal, living in the US, won 390 thousand dollars thanks to a lottery ticket seller's mistake
60-year-old Michael Sopejstal, living in the US, won a prize of 390 thousand dollars (approximately 11 million TL) thanks to a lottery ticket seller's mistake.
12punto
According to reports from Independent Türkçe and information provided by the Michigan Lottery, the lucky mistake occurred on September 17.
Sopejstal, an Illinois resident who visits the restaurant he frequents in Michigan several times a month, said that every time he comes, he buys 10 or 20 Lucky for Life lottery tickets from the GoLo gas station.
Sopejstal asked for a single-line ticket valid for 10 draws, but the seller gave him a 10-line ticket.
Sopejstal decided not to turn down the ticket anyway, saying, "One morning I checked my ticket and saw that I had won the prize of 25 thousand dollars (approximately 720 thousand TL) to be given every year for as long as I live."
Stating that this stroke of luck gave him incredible feelings, Sopejstal said the following:
I immediately started thinking about what I could do with this money and whether it would be better to take the money as a lump sum or annually.
The lucky man later went to the lottery headquarters to claim his prize.
Sopejstal said he chose the one-time lump sum payment of 390 thousand dollars instead of 25 thousand dollars per year.
In the US, Lucky for Life is played in 23 states as well as the capital, Washington. The prizes distributed range from just 3 dollars up to 1 thousand dollars for every day lived.
According to the winning odds published by Lucky for Life for every game, the probability of Sopejstal winning this prize that day was one in 1.8 million.