Imagine you’re a Massachusetts lottery player and you’ve just scratched a $10 ticket. You’d probably be pretty excited if you found out you had won $4,000. That’s a nice chunk of cash!
So, you do what most people would do. You go down to the Massachusetts State Lottery office to cash in your winnings. You expect to take your ticket up to the counter, fill out a few forms, and have a friendly chat with a nice lottery official. Within an hour, you’d probably walk away with a check for four grand in your pocket.
Not life changing money, but certainly something to help out with the old budget. You might pay off some debt, splurge on some new clothes, or go on a quick getaway with the family. And you could still have a few dollars left over for your rainy day fund.
What you don’t expect, however, is for the lottery official to announce you DIDN’T win $4,000. In fact, you didn’t win anywhere near that amount. What you actually won was $4 million!
And that’s exactly what happened to Enrique Frias Mejia.
$4,000 turns into $4 million
Frias Mejia’s game of choice was the Massachusetts State Lottery’s “$4,000,000 Platinum Jackpot” scratcher game. The game had three grand prizes of $4 million each. Players had already won two of the grand prizes. Frias Mejia’s scratcher represented the final $4 million prize.
A press release from the Massachusetts Lottery reports Frias Mejia of Aurora, Colorado purchased the ticket at Great Harbor Market in Edgartown. After scratching the ticket, he misinterpreted the results to mean he had won $4,000. It wasn’t until he went to the lottery office on June 12, 2026 that he discovered he’d won the much better prize of $4 million.
At this point, he had some quick decision making to do. He could take his prize money in an annuity paid out over many years. Or he could choose a one-time payment of $2.6 million before taxes. He chose the immediate one-time payment.
With his windfall wealth, he plans to help his family, buy a house, and make some long term investments.
Is it easy to misinterpret lottery scratcher results?
The Massachusetts Lottery didn’t mention what caused Frias Mejia to misinterpret his ticket results. One can imagine how thrilled he was when the lottery officials pointed out his mistake. Yes, I’ll take $4 million over $4,000 any day!
Most scratcher games are fairly straightforward, requiring you to just match the winning numbers with your numbers on the ticket. You then win the prize associated with your number.
Some scratcher games, however, can be a little confusing, especially if you’re a new player. Depending on the game, you might have to uncover several bonus areas on the ticket before you know for certain if you did (or didn’t) win a prize.
Some games offer prize multipliers or additional bonus prizes if your ticket has special symbols. I find crossword-style tickets to be the ones I must double-check the most.
Generally, these games require you to scratch off matching letters on a crossword grid. You then count how many complete words you’ve uncovered. The more complete words you uncover, the more money you win. Just accidentally skipping over one letter might make you think you’ve won less than you did.
Even when I’m sure I didn’t win anything, I still scan my scratcher tickets using my state’s lottery phone app. It doesn’t hurt to double-check, plus the app allows me to enter my losing ticket into the second chance drawings.
Sometimes people win the lottery by mistake
Our Massachusetts lottery player isn’t the only one who had a surprising lottery win. We recently reported on a story of a Michigan lottery player who purchased a winning million-dollar lottery ticket without intending to do so. Be sure to check out his fun story “Michigan lottery player accidentally wins $1.05 million.”
Have you ever won a prize by mistake? We’d love to hear your story. Head over to the Contact Form and drop us a line!