LANSING, January 30, 2003 – Over the past week the Michigan Lottery has conducted the first three drawings for its new WINFALL game. In those three drawings alone over 59,000 players have won great cash prizes! There were no winning tickets that correctly matched all six winning numbers to win the $5 million jackpots advertised for each drawing, so the money from those jackpots rolled down to the match five, four and three level winners each night.

"I saw the winning numbers in the newspaper and just stared at my ticket in total disbelief," Darlene Schnieders of Clinton Township said. "I kept checking the numbers over and over because I couldn’t believe I had won!"

Schneiders won a $24,609 prize after matching five numbers in the January 25, 2003 WINFALL drawing. She said she plans to share her winnings with her family and take a vacation.

Gloria Lewandowski of Port Huron was also thrilled to win big with the new game. She won a $32,256 prize after matching five numbers in the January 22, 2003 WINFALL drawing.

"My husband, Matthew, looked up the winning numbers on the Lottery’s Web site (www.michigan.gov/lottery)," Lewandowski said. "When we learned that we had matched five of the six winning numbers we started jumping for joy and calling our family members to share the good news!"

In the most recent drawing, which took place on Wednesday, January 29, 2003, there were 17 lucky winners who will each receive $34,719 for matching five numbers; 1,068 winners who will each receive $1,160 for matching four numbers; and 19,595 winners who will each receive $57 for matching three numbers.

The 17 winning tickets for the $34,719 (match five) prizes from the Wednesday, January 29, 2003 drawing were sold at the following retailers:

• Athens Grocery Store in Detroit

• Out-A-Bounds Pizza Company in Weidman

• Kroger #673 in Sterling Heights

• 7-Eleven 13432 in Fraser

• Quick Sav Food Store #2 in Clio

• Pettysville Junction in Pinckney

• Wine Valley Liquor in New Baltimore

• Walton Sashabaw Mobil in Waterford

• Fenkell & Greenfield Amoco in Detroit

• H&T Short Stop in Delton

• Meijer #601 in Wyoming

• Bridgeport IGA in Bridgeport

• Bottle N Stuff in Livonia

• Marathon of Plymouth in Plymouth

• Express FD Depot in New Haven

• Speedway #3573 in Allegan

• Forward #113 in Grayling

WINFALL replaced the Michigan Millions game on January 19, 2003. No one matched all six winning numbers in the final Michigan Millions drawing to win the jackpot so that prize money is being rolled into the WINFALL game. The jackpot money from Michigan Millions is being divided up to fund $5 million jackpots which will be awarded one drawing at a time.

The Lottery will only use the amount of carry-forward jackpot money from the Michigan Millions game needed to fund a $5 million annuitized jackpot. Once the Michigan Millions carry-forward jackpot money is exhausted, the WINFALL jackpots will begin at $2 million and rise according to sales from that point.

WINFALL drawings are held twice a week – Wednesday and Saturday – at 7:29 p.m., and the cost to play is $1 per wager.   Tickets are available at more than 7,200 Lottery retailers statewide.

Since it was created in 1972, the Michigan Lottery has returned over $11 billion to the state School Aid Fund, which supports K-12 public education in the state of Michigan.

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