An Oakland County man’s Millionaire’s Club ticket sat in a drawer collecting dust for three months before he realized it was a $4 million winning ticket!

The lucky 59-year-old player, who chose to remain anonymous, bought his winning ticket at the Marathon gas station, located at 3235 West Walton Boulevard in Waterford.

“When I play instant games, I never scratch off the amounts, even if I win, because I like the surprise of finding out the winning amount when I take it to a store to cash it,” said the player. “When I scratched my Millionaire’s Club ticket, I saw I won, but per usual, I didn’t scratch the amount. I put the ticket in a drawer to keep it for the next time I needed some extra cash.

“About three months later, I ed I still had the ticket, and I took it to the store to cash it. I got a message to file a claim at the Lottery office, so I finally scratched the amount. When I saw it was a $4 million winner, I was amazed. I couldn’t even fathom it. It’s been very hard to wrap my head around!”

The player recently visited Lottery headquarters to claim the big prize. He chose to receive his prize as a one-time lump sum payment of about $2.7 million rather than annuity payments for the full amount. With his winnings, he plans to invest and start a new company.

Players have won more than $96 million playing Millionaire’s Club, which launched in Feb. 2023. Each $30 ticket offers players a chance to win prizes ranging from $30 up to $4 million. More than $61 million in prizes remain, including one $4 million top prize, 10 $10,000 prizes, and 136 $2,000 prizes.

In 2023, Lottery players won nearly $1.8 billion playing instant games.

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