Michigan Lottery photo Above, Amanda Hughes and her daughter, Kaitlyn Hughes, pose for a photo with Amanda's giant check at the Michigan Lottery headquarters. Amanda won $500,000 on a scratch off ticket.

LANSING, Mich. — A suggestion from a store clerk led to an Upper Peninsula woman winning $500,000 playing the Michigan Lottery’s 50X Wild Time instant game.

“I don’t play scratch off tickets a lot, but I do buy one every once in a while,” said Amanda Hughes of Gwinn. “When I was at the store, I asked for the $20 Wild Time game, but they had sold out of it, so the clerk suggested 50X Wild Time.

“When I scratched the ticket off and saw the prize of $500,000, I wasn’t sure if it was real at first. I thought I must not have read the instructions correctly, so I reread them and then went back into the store to scan the ticket and have the clerk look at it. It was surreal when I realized I really had just won $500,000.”

Hughes, 42, bought her winning ticket at Kwik Trip, located at 301 M-553 in Marquette. She recently visited Lottery headquarters to claim her prize. With her winnings, she plans to buy a house and then save the remainder for her children.

“I still can’t believe this is real. This money is going to be life changing for my family.”

Players have won more than $67 million playing 50X Wild Time, which launched in February 2024. Each $10 ticket offers players a chance to win prizes ranging from $10 up to $500,000. More than $24 million in prizes remain, including 52 $10,000 prizes and 96 $1,000 prizes.

In 2024, Lottery players won nearly $1.8 billion playing instant games.

Lottery instant games may be purchased at retailers across the state.

About 97 cents of every dollar spent on Lottery tickets is returned to the state in the form of contributions to the state School Aid Fund, prizes to players, and commissions to vendors and retailers. In the 2024 fiscal year, the Lottery provided more than $1.2 billion for Michigan’s public schools, its sixth contribution of more than $1 billion. Since it began in 1972, the Lottery has contributed more than $29 billion to support public education in Michigan. For additional information, follow the Michigan Lottery on Facebook, Instagram, X and online at www.michiganlottery.com.