Michigan Powerball winner bought $842M ticket at convenience store outside of Flint – with owner set to scoop $1M for selling lucky ticket
The lucky New Year's Powerball winner purchased his $842.4 million winning ticket at a local grocery store just outside of Flint, Michigan.
The Food Castle in Grand Blanc, Michigan proudly announced Tuesday morning that it had sold the ticket on Facebook — and will be taking home its own $1 million prize for doing so.
The winner has not yet contacted the store or the lottery to claim their money, but will eventually be required to reveal their identity by this time next year under Michigan state law before their ticket is forfeited.
The big win marks the first time the prize has been won on New Year's Day since the games began in 1992.
The winning numbers were: 12, 21, 42, 44, 49 and red Powerball: 1.
The lucky ticket was sold at a grocery store called Food Castle in Grand Blanc, Michigan
The supermarket confirmed on Facebook that they were selling the winning ticket
The supermarket confirmed on Facebook that they had sold the winning ticket and uploaded a photo of one of the many Powerball tickets sold in Michigan.
“WE SOLD THE WINNING POWERBALL TICKET,” the message read.
One employee reportedly said he was still waiting to hear from the lucky winner and did not yet know whether it was a local resident who regularly used the store.
Michigan law says lottery winners who take home more than $10,000 in local games can claim their prizes secretly — but winners of multi-state games like Powerball must be announced.
Only Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, North Dakota, Ohio and South Carolina allow people to anonymously claim multi-state gaming winnings.
In October 2023, a bill to conceal the identities of those who win lottery games in multiple states to help prevent fraud and harassment was introduced, but was unanimously voted down by a House committee.
The bill was opposed by the Michigan Lottery, which said it was “important to show that real people win these life-changing prizes.” A similar bill was also introduced in 2021, but never made it to the Senate.
Food Castle uploaded a photo of one of the many Powerball tickets sold in Michigan as a display photo
This came after Cristy Davis, who won $70 million in 2020, started fighting to keep the identities of lottery winners secret after hers was stolen and used to scam multiple social media users.
Her win was highly publicized at the time, which she said led to numerous scammers using her identity to rob people.
'We have tried to arrange a lawyer to see if I can do that [claim] anonymously, and they said no. That was my biggest thing: I didn't want to be on TV. I know so many [who’ve] I've been through so much in my life, and it was that or no money.
“The lottery people need to know when they announce your name, this is what happens. The Lottery even sent me an email saying, “Oh, we heard you're scamming people here.” I said, 'You know, that's what happens when you make people's names public.'
'I'm not cheating anyone, I have money. Why would I want to hack into someone's bank account and take their money when there's probably $200 in their bank account? Just leave me alone,” Davis said.
Cristy Davis, who won $70 million in 2020, is fighting to have the identities of lottery winners kept secret after hers was stolen and used to scam multiple social media users
Davis' win was highly publicized, which she said led to numerous scammers using her identity to rob people
Scammers have created multiple fake social media accounts claiming to be Davis and asking people for their banking information in order to send them some of her winnings as a donation.
Once they receive the bank details, the scammers destroy entire savings accounts in one go.
One of the spam messages read: 'Hello congratulations, my name is Cristy Davis. I am the winner of the Power Ball Millions jackpot on February 2, 2021. Check me out at this link to see my winning interview https://youtu.be/god1Sgxyi6U I am donating to 20 random individuals.
'If you receive this message, your number has been chosen after a spin. So you are among those who, as one of the 20 selected, will give you an amount of $500,000.00. To verify your winnings, send an SMS to the responsible agent.
“Here's Officer DR's number. Johnson Allen, responsible for (315) 326-11931, text him for confirmation and delivery of your winnings. We need you to eliminate the skepticism from your psyche, text cell (315) 326-1193 to continue winning.”
Davis did not say whether she has taken action to protect the identities of future winners
Messages involving varying amounts of money are being sent to various Instagram users and local Facebook groups, who have started sharing screenshots of their conversations on TikTok
Before the big win on New Year's, the jackpot had been growing since mid-October.
The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.
The lucky ticket holder will have the choice of an annuated prize of $842.4 million, payable over 30 years, or a lump sum of $425.2 million. Both pricing options are before taxes.
Other top winning tickets include four sold in California, Connecticut, Florida and Maryland, which matched all five white balls and won $1 million in prizes.
Two tickets, from Florida and Texas, matched all five white balls and won $2 million in prizes by including the Power Play option for an additional $1 per game.
Power ball is played in 45 statesthe District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
The last time there was a jackpot winner was on October 11, 2023, and since then there have been 34 consecutive Powerball drawings in which no one has won the top prize.
However, there were several tickets that won big prizes in Saturday's drawing.
According to Powerball's website, two tickets purchased in Texas and West Virginia won $2 million each, while five lucky tickets in Colorado, New York, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee won $1 million.
Powerball is one of the most popular lottery games in the US, with more than 181 million Americans playing every year.