A 61-year-old woman from Ingham County, Michigan, thought her scratch-off ticket had won her $5,000 — then she scanned it on the official lottery app and discovered the prize was $2 million. The Michigan Lottery announced the win on Monday, 9 November 2026, and the winner, who has chosen to remain anonymous, has already claimed the prize.
The woman had bought a $30 Two Million Dollar Cashword ticket at the USA 2 Go Quick Store at 4495 Holt Road in Holt, Michigan. She finished scratching it, counted her completed words and believed she had won $5,000. The lottery app told a very different story.
Two words made all the difference
In the Cashword game, the prize depends on how many words a player completes. Eight completed words pay $5,000, nine words pay $10,000, and ten words pay the $2 million top prize. The difference between what the winner assumed and what she had actually won was as little as two words, according to the lottery’s account of the claim.
“I was in complete shock when I scanned the ticket on the Michigan Lottery app and saw $2 million,” the winner said in the lottery’s announcement. “It didn’t start sinking in that this is real until I pulled up to the Lottery office to claim my prize.” She chose a one-time lump-sum payment of about $1.3 million instead of annuity payments for the full $2 million.
One top prize left in the game
The Two Million Dollar Cashword game launched in January 2026 with three $2 million prizes among about 3.9 million tickets, with odds of about 1 in 1.3 million for the top prize. Following this claim, only one of the three $2 million prizes remains unclaimed, according to the Michigan Lottery’s 9 November update. Eight of the 20 prizes of $10,000 and 62 of the 126 prizes of $5,000 are also still unclaimed.
The game has overall odds of winning any prize of 1 in 3.44, the lottery says, and players have won more than $54 million on it so far, with more than $38 million in prizes still remaining.
What she plans to do with it
The winner told the lottery she plans to buy a new house and a vacation home in Florida, and to share the money with her family. It is the kind of plan that sounds ordinary until you remember it is being paid for by a $30 ticket bought on an everyday stop at a convenience store in Holt.
Scratch-off games rarely make the headlines the way Powerball and Mega Millions do, but they produce winners every day — and, as this Michigan woman discovered, the difference between a nice win and a life-changing one can come down to two small words hiding in plain sight on a ticket.
Sources: Michigan Lottery via ScratchCheck, 9 Nov 2026; Cruisin’ 929 (WLMI Lansing), 9 Nov 2026.
