LANSING, January 8, 2002 – When Daniel Rodgers of Gulliver purchased a Big Game ticket for the December 25, 2001 drawing he never dreamed he would win big. That is why he could hardly believe his eyes when he looked at his Big Game ticket and saw that he had matched the first five numbers in the Christmas Day Big Game drawing to win the $150,000 Big Game prize! That day’s winning numbers were: 20, 29, 34, 35, 48 and the Big Money Ball number was 23.

"My uncle called me after the drawing to let me know what the winning numbers were," Rodgers said. "I always check the gold ball on my tickets first and saw that I had matched the gold ball on one ticket, but no other numbers on that particular ticket. I wasn’t even thinking about the other prizes you can win in The Big Game, so I took what I thought was my $1 winning ticket to the store where I bought it to cash it in."

Rodgers said the clerk was as surprised as he was when she ran the ticket through the machine and saw that he had won a bit more than one dollar!

"When the clerk ran the ticket through the Lottery machine she turned and looked at me and said, ‘I can’t pay you your prize winnings because you won $150,000,’" Rodgers said. "I couldn’t believe what she was telling me. I was so shocked that I almost fell over!"

The retiree purchased the winning Big Game "easy pick" ticket at Bayview Shell, E. U.S. Hwy. 2, in Manistique.

Prior to turning the winning ticket in at Lottery headquarters in Lansing, Rodgers said he kept it in "a safe place." The lucky 55-year-old man, who enjoys fishing, hunting and playing Lottery games in his free time, said he is "still thinking about" what he wants to do with his winnings. Rodgers encourages other Lottery hopefuls to keep playing and "don’t give up!"

The Big Game is a multistate lottery game in Michigan, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia. Wagers cost $1 each and tickets may be purchased at more than 7,000 Michigan Lottery retailers statewide.

Big Game drawings are conducted every Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m. The next Big Game drawing is tonight (Tuesday) January 8 with an expected jackpot of $67 million.

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