Marcus Richards
How many people around the world will be lying in bed tonight thinking about hitting the lottery or tripping over a pot of gold. The number of people is probably somewhere in the hundreds of millions. For one man in South Rockwood, Michigan, that dream came true not once, but in fact came true two times over the last three years.
The man’s name is Mark Clark, 50 years of age, out of the Monroe County area. While playing the Michigan State Lottery’s $150,000,000 Payout instant game, his lucky ticket came up in early June, awarding him with $4,000,000 before taxes. This came on the heels of his December 2017 win where he won the same $4,000,000 amount playing a different game. With so much money flowing in the state, anyone interested in finding a MI lottery promo code and giving it a go should do so.
Back to Mr. Clark. It is near impossible to calculate the real odds of someone hitting a major lottery win twice in a lifetime. It happens but always defies probability when it does. As to why he was the beneficiary of such luck, Mr. Clark could only surmise that someone or something out there was looking out for him.
His first instant lottery win came playing the Millionaire’s Club instant game. Regarding that first win, Clark told reporters this: “After the first win, I retired from my job and spent a lot of time fishing. My dad and I always used to fish together and have great memories of that, so this will help me keep fishing and enjoying time with my son and family.”
At that point, most people who have been happy to rest on their laurels. That is not the case with Mr. Clark, who decided to keep on playing lotteries with only a feint expectation of ever being so lucky again.
He purchased his June winning ticket at the Ash Market, located at 11653 Telegraph Road in Carleton, Michigan. As he explained to the press, “I scratched the ticket off in the store with a coin my dad gave me about 10 years ago. We lost him about a year ago after some health struggles, and I can’t help but think maybe that lucky coin helped me win this.” How is that for divine intervention?
Upon winning the $4,000,000, Clark decided to take a one-time lump-sum payment of $2.5 million, rather than the annuity. Since he no longer has a job from which to retire, he never made mention of how he was going to be spending his amazing second lottery windfall.
In parting, he stated: “I’ve had a lot of ups and a lot of downs in my life, but everything is pretty amazing right now.”
For anyone interested, Michigan is home to Cristy Davis of Waterford, Michigan. All she did was win $70 million playing Powerball in February of this year. She stated she was going to use her winnings to buy a house and a car. Here’s to thinking that might have been the understatement of the year.
