In Gwinn, Michigan, 42-year-old Amanda Hughes recently was in the Kwik Trip on M-553 in Marquette. "I don't play scratch off tickets a lot, but I do buy one every once in a while. 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. I bought it was some drinks and went to the car. I normally would wait to get home before scratching it off but I decided to reach in the bag and just do it in the parking lot. 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!"
The actual winning after taxes is just over $350,000. Amanda gave the clerk 3 grand for the suggestion. 35 grand to her church. Another 10 grand to help pay for a bus for the church. Bought a new house cash for $225,000 and banked about 75 grand which she points out is about double her annual salary. "I still can't believe this is real! This money is going to be life changing for my family!"