LANSING, July 20, 1998 – A Cadillac lottery club and a Fife Lake man each celebrated $150,000 wins recently in the Michigan Lottery’s Big Game!

• In Cadillac, "The Players" lottery club matched the first five numbers in the June 30 Big Game drawing for the game’s $150,000 prize.  The winning numbers in the June 30 drawing were: 5, 21, 41, 43, 48, and the Big Money Ball number was 10.
• William Thornton of Fife Lake matched the first five numbers in the July 7 drawing.  That day’s numbers were: 5, 9, 27, 39, 48, and the Big Money Ball number was 25.

The eight members of "The Players" lottery club had a hard time believing at first that they had actually won.

"I usually buy the tickets so I’m the first one to check our numbers," said club member Maxine Merz.  "I looked at that baby a few times and still didn’t know how much we’d won.  I called Judy, ordered doughnuts for our morning sales meeting, and we told everyone at work.  Nobody believed us!"

In addition to being Cadillac residents, all eight members have worked together at some time at Coldwell Bankers Schmidt Realtors in Cadillac.  They have played Lottery games as a club for about seven years.

The members, who range in age from 51 to 71, had a variety of plans for their share of winnings, including new carpeting and "a better Christmas!"

Members of "The Players" lottery club are:

Maxine Merz 

Beverly Schultz

Gert Claypool 

Jerry Faloon

Judy Ann Peterson 

Edward G. Kellogg

Jo A. Myers

 Ann Kennard

The winning Big Game "easy pick" ticket was purchased at Whistle Stop Market, 6184 M-115, in Cadillac.

Further north in Fife Lake, William Thornton had a similar reaction when he learned of his $150,000 win.

"My wife saw the drawing on TV, but we just didn’t believe it at first," he said.  "We called our niece who verified the results over the phone on the Lottery Link hotline (800-822-8888)."

Thornton has been a regular Michigan Lottery player for 20 years.  A retired plumber who likes fishing and woodworking, Thornton said he will share his Big Game winnings with relatives.

The winning Big Game "easy pick" ticket was purchased at Kimballs Food Market, 113 Merritt, in Fife Lake.

The Big Game is a six-state lottery game which held its first drawing in September 1996.  Lotteries in Michigan, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and Virginia contribute to the joint prize pool.

To date, the Michigan Lottery has awarded more than $124 million in prizes to six Big Game jackpot winners.  In addition, dozens of Michigan Lottery players have correctly matched the first five Big Game numbers to win the game’s $150,000 second-tier prize.

Big Game drawings are conducted every Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m.  The estimated jackpot for the Tuesday (July 21) drawing is $11 million.

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