"Shocked" Massachusetts woman thought she won $10,000 on a lottery ticket. Her actual prize was much bigger.
A Worcester woman thought she had scratched a $10,000 winner on a Massachusetts State Lottery ticket, but it turns out that she won a whole lot more.
The Lottery said Michelle Sloan came to the agency's Worcester regional office to turn in her winning "$2,000,000 Diamond Cashword" ticket. But she was told there that she had to go to Lottery headquarters in Boston to claim her prize because she actually had won $1 million.
"I was positive it was only ten grand," Sloan said in a statement shared by the Lottery. "I just can't believe it. I'm still so shocked!"
Sloan chose the cash option on the prize, taking home a one-time payment of $650,000 before taxes. She said she is planning to use the money to invest and help her children.
Sloan bought the lucky ticket at the Village Knoll Variety store in Millbury. The store gets a $10,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.
$2,000,000 Diamond Cashword is a $10 game that offers a 1 in 3.26 chance of winning any prize. The odds of winning $1 million are 1 in 2,520,000, and the odds of winning the $2 million grand prize are 1 in 5,040,000.
There are seven $1 million prizes and four $2 million prizes yet to be claimed in the game.
Earlier this week, the Lottery shared the story of a Fitchburg man who made a lucky mistake in buying two Powerball tickets. He ended up winning $1 million on each.
