Michigan winners

$2 Million in a Parked Car: The Detroit Big Money Pay Day Win

By Lotto Surgeon · Oct 26, 2026 · 4 min read

Late night. A $20 ticket. A parked car outside a Detroit corner store. That is the whole setup behind one of Michigan's biggest scratch-off wins this fall.

A 37-year-old Wayne County man won $2 million on the Michigan Lottery's Big Money Pay Day instant game, according to lottery officials, as reported by MLive and Patch on Oct. 5. He chose to stay anonymous, which Michigan allows. Here is what happened, how the claim worked, and what the numbers behind that ticket actually look like.

What happened

The winner bought his Big Money Pay Day ticket at Safeway Market Inc., 8031 Dix Street in Detroit. He did not wait to get home.

"I bought a Big Money Pay Day ticket late one night and scratched it when I got in my car before heading home. When I saw I'd won $2 million, I was in complete shock!"

He told the Lottery he buys scratch-offs often and had only won smaller prizes before. "I honestly never thought I'd win a big prize like this, so I feel over the moon excited and blessed," he said.

His plan is refreshingly boring, in the best way:

"This big win will allow me to pay off all my debt and then I plan to save the rest of the money for whatever the future may have in store for me."

No yacht. No Lamborghini. Debt gone, savings account full.

How a $2 million scratch-off gets claimed

A prize this size cannot be cashed at the store. Michigan Lottery rules say any prize of $100,000 or more has to be claimed in person at Lottery headquarters, 101 E. Hillsdale Street in downtown Lansing, by appointment. That is exactly where this winner claimed his prize.

Here is the short version of what the Lottery asks for, straight from its claim instructions:

• The original ticket. Sign the back as soon as you find a winner. An unsigned ticket is treated like cash by whoever holds it.
• Original government photo ID and Social Security card. The names on both have to match exactly.
• An appointment. For $100,000 and up, winners start the claim and then schedule a visit through Lottery Player Relations.

Smaller prizes have easier paths. Prizes of $99,999.99 or less can be claimed by mail, and prizes from $601 to $99,999.99 can be claimed at a regional office or claim center by appointment.

Lump sum vs annuity: why he took $1.3 million

This is the part that surprises people. The winner did not walk away with $2 million. He chose a one-time lump sum of about $1.3 million instead of annuity payments of the full $2 million spread out over time.

Neither option is wrong. It comes down to what the money is for.

For someone whose first goal is wiping out debt, the lump sum makes sense. Interest on debt is a cost you pay no matter what, so clearing it today saves money every month after.

The tax bite

Then come taxes. For any Michigan Lottery prize over $5,000, the Lottery withholds 24% for federal tax and 4.25% for Michigan state tax before paying out.

On a $1.3 million lump sum, that withholding works out to roughly:

• Federal (24%): about $312,000
• Michigan (4.25%): about $55,250
• Left after withholding: about $932,750

That is our rough math, not his actual check. The Lottery is clear that withholding "does not necessarily satisfy a winner's total tax liability." A prize this size pushes most people into the top federal bracket, so the final tax bill can be higher than what was withheld. Big winners usually sit down with a tax professional before they spend a dollar.

The honest math on Big Money Pay Day

Big Money Pay Day is a $20 game that launched July 7, 2026. Based on Michigan Lottery prize data as of Oct. 25:

That payback number matters. At launch, the game was set to pay back about 78 cents in prizes for every dollar of tickets. Across all players, that means a $20 ticket returns about $15.66 in prizes on average. It is a game you pay to play, not a way to make money.

And the top prize is rare. Using the printed prize counts and the posted 1-in-3.65 overall odds, we estimate around 6.4 million tickets were printed. With 3 top prizes, that puts the odds of a $2 million ticket at roughly 1 in 2.1 million at launch.

One more thing worth knowing: two top prizes being left does not make the next ticket more likely to hit. Tickets sell down along with the prizes, so the odds per ticket stay in the same ballpark. No ticket is ever "due".

Michigan's other big stories this year

This win is part of a busy stretch for Michigan players:

• The Breakfast Club. The last Michigan winners of a Powerball or Mega Millions jackpot were a lottery club called the Breakfast Club, which claimed an $842 million jackpot in June 2024, according to MLive.
• The one that got away. A Fantasy 5 ticket worth $197,766 sold in Covert in 2025 was never claimed, MLive reported. That money went to the state's School Aid Fund.

That Covert ticket is the best argument for checking every ticket you buy, right away. Every Michigan Lottery prize has a claim deadline, and once it passes, the money is gone.

Want to look up a game?

If you play scratch-offs and want to see how many top prizes are still out there, our Michigan scratch-off tracker lists every active game with prizes left and estimated payback, updated from Michigan Lottery data. The Big Money Pay Day page has the full prize table for this game.

Play for fun, set a budget, and treat any win as a bonus.

Lottery games are entertainment, and every ticket loses money on average. Nothing here makes any ticket more likely to win. Play responsibly. 18+ to play in Michigan. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.