LANSING, April 9, 1999 – Orlando Medina and Alonzo Martin of Detroit recently both won big bucks in the Michigan Lottery’s Big Game!  Medina and Martin each matched the first five numbers in the April 6 drawing to win $150,000 prizes.  That day’s winning numbers were: 12, 17, 22, 33, 44 and the Big Money Ball number was 25.

Medina, 24, purchased the winning Big Game "easy pick" ticket at Ryan’s Foods, 5858 W. Vernor Hwy., in Detroit. Prior to turning the winning ticket in at Lottery headquarters in Lansing, he hid it in a special place at his mother’s house. The lucky man said he plans to use his winnings to purchase a new car.

"I watched The Big Game drawing on television and wrote down the winning numbers," Medina said.  "I was so happy about winning I showed the winning ticket to all my friends!"

Martin, 44, also had a winning $150,000 Big Game ticket for the same drawing. He purchased the winning ticket at Vince’s Bakery & Party Store, 12800 E. 8 Mile Road, in Detroit.

The Detroit Newspaper Agency employee said he only occasionally plays Michigan Lottery games – specifically The Big Game and the Daily 3 game.  Prior to turning in the winning ticket to Lottery officials, Martin hid it in a shoebox in his house.  The model railroader said he plans to invest his winnings.

"I saw the winning numbers on the news," Martin said.  "I wrote them all down, but I wrote one of them down wrong, so I thought I had only won $151.  I took the ticket to the store to collect my winnings and they told me they couldn’t pay me because I had won $150,000!  I was completely surprised that I had won that much money!"

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 tonight, April 9 – the expected jackpot is $5 million.

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