A St. Clair County man “can’t explain the feeling” of winning a $500,000 prize playing the Michigan Lottery’s Diamond Spectacular instant game.

The lucky player, who chose to remain anonymous, bought his winning ticket at the BP gas station, located at 33925 23 Mile Road in Chesterfield.

“I purchased the tickets right before I went on vacation and forgot about them,” said the 62-year-old player. “A few days after I got home, I remembered I had a few tickets and scratched them off.

“When I saw I’d won $500,000, I looked the ticket over a few more times before taking it to my wife to have her check it over. We couldn’t believe it, so we had our son come over to look at it. When he confirmed what we were seeing, we took it to the retailer to scan it. That’s when we knew it was real.”

The lucky player visited Lottery headquarters to claim his prize. With his winnings, he plans to pay bills and then save the remainder.

“I can’t explain the feeling I got when I realized I’d won. It’s something I’ve never felt before,” the player said. “It still hasn’t sunk in.”

Players have won more than $12 million playing Diamond Spectacular, which launched in August 2020. Each $5 ticket offers players a chance to win prizes ranging from $5 up to $500,000. More than $18 million in prizes remain, including two $500,000 top-prizes, 14 $2,000 prizes and 181 $500 prizes.

Lottery instant games may be purchased at 10,500 retailers across the state.

In 2020, Lottery players won more than $1.5 billion playing instant games.