North Carolina Lottery Player Turns $50 into $1 Million

Lottery games grant a unique chance for fortunate players to collect life-changing winnings in exchange for a small sum. In one such case, a man from Lincolnton, North Carolina, was able to turn a $50 ticket into a mouth-watering $1 million prize.

The North Carolina Education Lottery released details regarding the fortunate player who purchased his ticket from Kingsway on North Aspen Street in Lincolnton. The winner, Maurice Young, bought a ticket for the Lottery’s popular scratch-off game $10 Million Spectacular.

Undoubtedly, the fortunate player didn’t expect that he would be among the winners who scored a tier-two prize from the scratch-off ticket. Trying his luck turned out as a success, considering that the Lincoln County man hit a $1 million prize from the $10 Million Spectacular game.

Young’s $1 million triumph marked the thirteenth such prize from the Lottery’s scratch-off game. Considering that there is a total of 20 such prizes, this means that seven prizes of $1 million each remain in play. Undoubtedly, this was Young’s lucky day, considering the odds of winning one of the $1 million prizes are 1 in 813,895.5.

Visiting the Lottery headquarters recently, the winner faced a difficult choice. Young was given the option to either collect the whole $1 million via annuity payments of $50,000 per year for the next 20 years or collect a lump sum of $600,000.

Not unexpectedly, the winner selected the lump cash sum. Still, it’s important to note that lottery prizes in North Carolina are subject to state and federal tax. After the applicable taxes, Young’s bank account increased by nearly $429,000, a sum that’s far from $1 million but completely life-changing.

Plenty of Prizes Remain in Play from $10 Million Spectacular

While $1 million is the second-largest prize from the Lottery’s $10 Million Spectacular game, the scratch-off ticket also offers $10 million prizes. At the release of the ticket game on December 5, 2023, there were a total of five prizes of $10 million each.

After two such top prizes have been claimed, three remain up for grabs. The odds of winning a top prize from the popular scratch-off game are 1 in 3,255,582.

The Lottery’s $10 Million Spectacular ticket also offered 20 prizes of $100,000 at the start. After eleven have been claimed, nine prizes of $100,000 each remain up for grabs.

The $50 ticket also offers prizes of $50,000 and $5,000 too. The odds of winning the former are 1 in 325,558.2, while the odds of winning the latter are 1 in 117,107.27. There are 23 prizes of $50,000 each remaining, while there are 70 prizes of $5,000 each still in play.

The overall odds of winning a prize from the popular game are 1 in 3.11.