North Carolina Man Wins $1M from MAX-A-MILLION Scratcher

The North Carolina Education Lottery has unveiled new winners of huge prizes, including a player who secured a prize of over a million.

Charlotte Man Won $1M from Scratch-off Ticket

The NC Education Lottery announced that a ticket bought from the Gate on Lawyers Road in Stallings has brought its winner a life-changing prize of $1 million. The impressive sum was won by a man by the name of Kenneth Locklear, according to the lottery’s official announcement.

Locklear, of Charlotte, was playing the lottery’s $30 MAX-A-MILLION scratch-off game. As the title unequivocally suggests, $1 million is the top prize players can expect.

The NC Education Lottery added that Locklear opted to take the lump sum of $600,000 rather than the annuity of $50,000 over 20 years. After tax, he took home $430,508, lottery officials clarified.

The lottery added that the MAX-A-MILLION game initially featured a whopping 25 top prizes of $1 million, as well as 10 prizes of $100,000. As of the time of this writing, there are 18 top prizes and 7 $100K prizes remaining.

A Separate Player Took $250K Home

The lottery also unveiled Needham Wiley Jr., of Smithfield, as the winner of a $250,000 prize from a second-chance drawing. This was notably the top prize available.

NC Lottery officials clarified that Wiley won the top prize in the third of four 2025 Multiply The Cash Second Chance drawings. To put things into perspective, there were a staggering 36.7 million total entries in the drawing, which took place on October 8.

The lottery confirmed that Wiley visited the lottery HQ to claim his prize, which stood at $179,375 after tax.

In other news, a lucky player in New Jersey just won the 53^rd Jersey Cash 5 jackpot, taking home some $1.6 million.