LANSING, April 23, 2002 – The recently-created R&R Investments Lottery Club of Dublin, Ohio experienced a stroke of beginner’s luck—worth $150,000! The club purchased a Michigan Lottery

Big Game ticket that matched the first five numbers in the April 16 drawing. The winning numbers for that day’s drawing were: 7, 10, 25, 26, 27 and the Big Money Ball number was 23.

The winning "easy pick" ticket was purchased at 23 Fuel Stop, 6260 Sterns Road, in Ottawa Lake.

The two lucky members of the R&R Investments Lottery Club, Ronald Richards of Dublin, Ohio and Debra Rake of Delaware, Ohio each collected $75,000, before taxes.

Richards, the club’s representative, had the winning ticket with him when the numbers were drawn, but member Debra Rake saw the winning numbers on the televised drawing and relayed them to Richards over the phone.

"I had initially written the numbers down incorrectly, so we didn’t think we had won anything," Rake said. "I heard the winning numbers on television again, and I realized I had made a mistake. We met for coffee to compare the winning numbers to the numbers on the ticket and we realized we had won something—but we had no idea it was such a large prize! We took it to the retailer and when we were told it was $150,000, we were stunned!"

Good fortune smiled upon the R&R Investments Lottery Club, which has only been in existence for one month! Richards said they had traveled to northern Ohio for business before the drawing on April 16, and decided to drive a little farther to Michigan to purchase a ticket at the last minute. That impulsive decision definitely paid off for the lucky club!

The Big Game is a multistate lottery game in Michigan, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia. Wagers cost $1 each and tickets may be purchased at more than 7,000 Michigan Lottery retailers statewide.

Big Game drawings are conducted every Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m. The next Big Game drawing is Tuesday, April 23, with an estimated jackpot of $7 million.

# # #