LANSING, March 3, 2000 – Less than 24 hours after last night’s Michigan Rolldown drawing, both of the jackpot winners have visited Michigan Lottery regional offices to collect their windfalls! The winning numbers in the March 2 Michigan Rolldown drawing were: 07, 08, 17, 22 and 31.
The total jackpot prize pool for last night’s drawing was $37,512, so each jackpot winner received $18,756, before taxes. In total, there were 40,850 cash prize winners last night. In addition to the two jackpot winners, 155 players matched four numbers for a prize of $99 each; 4,295 players matched three numbers for a prize of $9 each; and 36,398 players matched two numbers for a prize of $1.
One of the jackpot winners, a Flint woman, said she was pleasantly surprised to learn how much her ticket was worth!
"My husband and I originally thought that the two winning tickets would be splitting what was really our share of the prize pool," said the lucky lady, who requested to remain anonymous. "We were happy to win any prize amount, but we were really happy when we found out that our ticket was worth $18,756!"
A regular Michigan Lottery player for 15 years, the Flint housewife said she plans to put her Michigan Rolldown winnings toward the purchase of a new home. Her winning ticket was purchased at Beecher Beer & Wine, G5375 N. Saginaw St., in Flint.
"I was watching the drawing on TV and copied the numbers down," he said. "I said to myself, ‘OK, you got them all’ and I was just tickled pink!"
The 76-year-old winner, who requested anonymity, said he plans to put his winnings in the bank for now until he decides what to do. A regular Michigan Lottery player for 10 years, the lucky man purchased his Michigan Rolldown "easy pick" ticket at Original Buscemis, 4300 E. 14 Mile Road, in Warren.
"We’re pleased to welcome our first two jackpot winners to the Michigan Rolldown game!" said Michigan Lottery Commissioner Don Gilmer. "Sales are better than we’d predicted, more players are winning, and we think this is an appealing game to a lot of different players."
Michigan Rolldown’s first drawing was held Monday, February 28. Drawings are conducted six days a week — Monday through Saturday — at 7:28 p.m., and the cost to play is $1 per wager. Tickets are available at the more than 6,400 Lottery retailers statewide.
The feature that makes Michigan Rolldown unique among other Michigan Lottery games is the "roll down" feature, ensuring that all of the prize money will be paid out each and every night. In the event that no player matches all five numbers drawn to win the jackpot, that prize money "rolls down" to players who match four of five numbers, giving them an even bigger win!
To play Michigan Rolldown, players select five numbers from a field of 33, or use the "easy pick" feature in which the computer terminal randomly picks five of 33 numbers. Odds to match all five numbers are 1 in 237,336, with overall odds to win a cash prize of 1 in 6.
Cash prizes are awarded for matching five, four, three and even two numbers. These top three prizes are pari-mutuel and, therefore, may vary from drawing to drawing. Pari-mutuel prizes are based on the number of tickets sold and the number of winners matching five, four and three numbers.
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