A Macomb County man won $300,000 of cold hard cash playing the Michigan Lottery’s Winter Lucky Times 10 instant game.

The lucky player, who chose to remain anonymous, bought the winning ticket at the Speedway gas station, located at 57050 Van Dyke Road in Washington.

“I bought five tickets when I stopped at Speedway and scratched the bar codes off so I could scan them and see if they were winners,” said the player. “The first four weren’t winners, but the machine said something different for the last one. I scanned it a couple more times because I thought the machine was broken.

“When it kept reading the same thing, I decided to take the ticket home. When I got home, I scratched the rest of the ticket off and was shocked when I saw it was a $300,000 winner!”

The big win couldn’t have come at a better time for the 44-year-old player, who has been out of work since being badly injured in a car accident a year ago.

“I’ve been through hell over the last year,” said the player. “I was hit by a truck, and had to have multiple surgeries just to be able to walk again. Bills have piled up, and my family has really been helping me out while I’ve been going through all of this. It will be nice to be able to pay them all back.”

The player visited Lottery headquarters Thursday to claim the big prize. In addition to paying his family back, he plans to set up a college fund for his daughter and then invest the remainder of his winnings.

Players have won more than $7.7 million playing Winter Lucky Times 10, which launched in December 2016. Each $5 ticket offers players a chance to win prizes ranging from $5 up to $300,000. More than $4.2 million in prizes remain, including one $300,000 top prize and five $1,000 prizes.

Lottery instant games may be purchased at 11,000 retailers across the state.

In 2016, Lottery players won nearly $817 million playing instant games.