A group of friends from Livingston County is celebrating after their Sweet 16 lottery club won a $1 million Powerball prize.
The 16-member lottery club won the $1 million prize after matching the five white balls drawn Aug. 23: 06-07-16-23-26. They bought their winning ticket at O’Connor’s Deli, located at 650 South Grad Street in Fowlerville.
“We’ve been a lottery club for about three years and each of us chips in $5 each week to play,” said the club’s representative. “I buy the tickets and then send everyone photos so they know what numbers we have.”
“In fact, I didn’t even know we won until I got a text from one of our members saying we’d matched five numbers. I was driving and had the ticket in my purse, so as soon as I got to my destination I pulled it out and looked for myself. As soon as I saw it for myself, I texted my husband and told him to call me. I waited about 30 seconds, and then I called him because I couldn’t wait any longer. After we talked, I started calling club members.”
The largest prize the club had previously won was $500 playing Mega Millions. Any prize of $1,000 or less is re-invested to buy Lottery tickets.
“It’s always been something fun for us to do together,” said the club’s representative. “We have a cap on the number of members we will allow and that is 16. We’ve never had a waiting list to join before, but we might now!”
Members of the Sweet 16 lottery club visited Lottery headquarters Tuesday to claim their prize. Each member received $62,500, before income tax withholdings. Most members plan to use their portion of the big prize to pay bills.
Powerball plays may be purchased for $2 each at Lottery retailers across the state and online at MichiganLottery.com. A “Power Play” option that multiplies non-jackpot prizes by up to 10 times to a maximum of $2 million may be added to any Powerball play for only $1.
The Powerball drawing takes place at 10:59 p.m. on Wednesday and Saturday and may be watched live online at: http://www.powerball.com. Powerball tickets are sold in 44 states, Washington D.C., U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.
