Michigan Man’s 30-Year Bet Finally Pays Off as Fortune-Teller’s Numbers Win $1 Million

For nearly three decades, a Michigan man faithfully played the same set of lottery numbers.

Friends may have called it superstition. Family members may have called it a waste of money.

Now they might call it genius.

A Fraser, Michigan resident has won a $1 million Powerball prize after using a set of “lucky numbers” he received from a Zoltar fortune-telling machine during a trip to Las Vegas roughly 30 years ago. According to the Michigan Lottery, the man had kept playing those exact numbers year after year, drawing after drawing, never giving up on the idea that they might someday hit.

The winner, identified as 56-year-old Stephen Huesgen, said the numbers came from a fortune dispensed by one of the famous Zoltar machines, the mechanical fortune tellers made famous by the Tom Hanks movie Big.

Most people would have forgotten about the fortune by the time the hotel parking lot disappeared in the rearview mirror.

Not Huesgen.

Instead, he turned the machine’s prediction into a three-decade ritual.

That persistence paid off when the numbers matched the first five numbers in an April Powerball drawing, earning him a $1 million prize.

“About 30 years ago, I was in Las Vegas and got a fortune from a Zoltar machine,” Huesgen told lottery officials. “On my fortune, there was a set of lucky numbers, so I have been playing those numbers on lottery games ever since.”

The odds of sticking with the same numbers for 30 years are probably almost as impressive as the win itself.

Many lottery players constantly switch numbers, chase birthdays, use “quick picks,” or adopt a new strategy after every losing ticket. Huesgen simply kept handing over the same numbers year after year, apparently figuring that if a mystical arcade machine was ever going to be right, eventually it would have to prove it.

This time, it did.

The newly minted millionaire said he plans to use part of the winnings to pay off his mortgage and vehicle, while setting aside the rest for retirement and vacations.

And before anyone asks, yes, he’s reportedly going to keep playing those same numbers.

After all, when a fortune teller waits 30 years to prove itself right, who’s brave enough to argue with it?