A Speedway clerk asked a Michigan man if he wanted a Ruby 7s too. He said "why not?" and won $1 million

A 62-year-old Oakland County man won $1 million on a Michigan Lottery scratch-off he didn't plan to buy.

He was picking out several tickets at a Speedway at 1010 South Rochester Road in Rochester when the clerk, pulling them off the rolls, asked if he wanted a Ruby 7s too. "I picked out several different scratch-off tickets while I was at the store, and as the clerk was grabbing them off the rolls, she asked if I wanted a Ruby 7s ticket too, so I said: 'Why not?'" said the winner, who chose to remain anonymous.

He scratched the tickets in his car. "I started scratching the tickets when I got in my car and went into shock when I saw a $1 million win on the Ruby 7s ticket," he said. "My daughter was with me, so I showed her the ticket, and she nearly hit her head on the roof of the car from jumping up with excitement!"

The ticket above shows how it paid. In the Game 5 play area, one of his numbers, 11, matched the winning number 11, and the prize printed beneath it read $1MIL.

He took the lump sum (cash option), about $693,000 before taxes, instead of annuity payments on the full $1 million. "This prize is going to give me some leeway financially. It will allow me to start college funds for my kids, buy a house, and then I'll have some fun with the rest," he said.

After 24% federal withholding, or $166,320, and Michigan's 4.25% income tax, or about $29,450, he gets roughly $497,000. The 24% withholding will not cover the whole federal bill, because the top slice of a $693,000 prize is taxed at 35% and 37%. Assuming no other income, his federal tax comes to about $207,000, so he will owe roughly $40,000 more next April, and his take-home after all taxes is about $456,000. The 4.25% Michigan withholding already covers his state tax.

Ruby 7s went on sale June 2. The lottery's prize table lines up with what the Michigan Lottery said in its release.

The game holds about $45.9 million in prizes across a print run of about 6 million tickets, a payout of 76.6%. That makes a $1 million win about a 1 in 2 million shot per ticket, and the overall odds of winning anything are 1 in 3.84. About 36% of the $10 prizes have been cashed, so close to two thirds of the run is still out there with two top prizes in it.

Ruby 7s rates 62.2 on our ValueScore™, 16th of Michigan's 26 active $10 games. The state's top $10 ticket right now is Silver & Gold Cashword at 79.9, and the full rankings are on our best value list.

Sources

Michigan Lottery Connect: Oakland County man wins $1 million playing Ruby 7s