LANSING, February 8, 1999 – Allen Baker of Detroit celebrated his four-year employment anniversary is style after hitting the big time with the Michigan Lottery’s Big Game!  On February 2, 1999 – exactly four years from the day he began working as a machine operator for CMI Southfield Inc. – Baker matched the first five numbers in the Big Game drawing to win the $150,000 prize.  That day’s winning numbers were: 6, 14, 23, 31, 33 and the Big Money Ball number was 13.

"I woke up Wednesday morning and my mother-in-law had left a piece of paper for me with the winning numbers on it," Baker said.  "I checked my ticket around 5 a.m. and I saw that I had won.  I woke my wife up right away and to tell her the good news and she thought I was lying!  It still hasn’t really hit me yet that I won!"

Baker, 37, purchased the winning Big Game "easy pick" ticket at Wide Awake Market, 914 Livernois St., in Ferndale.  The winning numbers from that day turned out to be extra lucky for Baker as he was also a big winner on a ticket that he purchased through his Lottery club at work!

The Detroit man, who has been playing Michigan Lottery games for the past 20 years, said his winnings are all under his "wife’s care!" He said that most likely they will use the winnings to pay bills.

The lucky winner offered the following advice for other Lottery hopefuls: "You can’t win if you don’t play!  Don’t stop dreaming!"

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. Big Game drawings are conducted every Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m.  The next Big Game drawing will be conducted on Tuesday, February 9 – the expected jackpot is $7 million!

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