A 70-year-old Sterling Heights man was relieved to claim his prize of $25,000 a year for life nine months after playing the Michigan Lottery’s Lucky for Life game. Floyd Warstler matched the five white balls in the August 13, 2022, drawing by selecting the numbers 13-26-34-37 and 48 to win the prize. Warstler bought the winning ticket at the Sunoco gas station in Shelby Township.

The lucky player says he buys a Lucky for Life ticket every Monday and didn’t realize until about a month after the drawing that he failed to check his ticket. He then took it to the store to be scanned when he received a message to file a claim at Lottery headquarters, thinking he might have won $5,000. But, instead, he forgot about the ticket again and left it in his car when his girlfriend later found it and asked if he had checked it.

After telling her about the claim message he received when he first checked the ticket, she went online to see the winning numbers. It was then that he realized he’d won $25,000 for life. “We went down south for the winter a few days after finding out I’d won, so I am very relieved to finally be at the Lottery collecting my prize.”

Warstler recently visited Lottery headquarters to collect his prize and chose to receive the one-time lump sum payment of $390,000 instead of annuity payments of $25,000 a year for 20 years or life, whichever is greater. The lucky winner says he plans to invest his new-found winnings.

The $2 Lucky for Life draw game gives players a chance to win prizes from $3 up to the top prize of $1,000 a day for life by matching the five winning numbers from 1 to 48 plus the Lucky Ball, which numbers range from 1 to 18. Matching five numbers without the Lucky Ball pays players the $25,000 a year for life prize. Lucky for Life drawings take place seven days a week at 10:38 PM.

Tickets for the Lucky for Life game are available online at MichiganLottery.com or one of the 10,500 Lottery retailers throughout the state.