Lottery player won $25,000 a year for life in lucky ticket-printing mistake

• An Illinois man bought a lottery ticket, which the seller accidentally printed incorrectly.
• Michael Sopejstal kept the ticket and won $25,000 a year for life.

An Illinois man won $25,000 a year for life thanks to a lucky ticket-printing mistake.

Michael Sopejstal, 60, bought a Lucky For Life lottery ticket at the GoLo gas station in New Buffalo, Michigan.

"I asked the retailer for a ticket for 10 draws, but he accidentally printed a ticket with 10 lines for one draw, but I told him I still wanted it," he said.

The ticket for the Michigan Lottery matched the five white balls drawn on September 17.

"I checked my ticket one morning and saw that I had won $25,000 a year for life. I immediately started thinking about all the things I could do with the money and whether I wanted to take the lump sum or annuity option. It was an amazing feeling!"

Sopejstal said he chose to take a one-time lump-sum payment of $390,000 rather than the annual payments.

He said he plans to travel with some of the money and save the rest.