Dad buys lottery game because of nostalgia and wins big in NC. ‘Life-changing money’
Reminiscent of a happy memory with the North Carolina Loteria game, one man decided to purchase a ticket that led him to a huge prize, lottery officials said.
David Boyd Jr. bought a $10 scratch-off ticket Oct. 9 that became a $1 million top prize win, the N.C. Education Lottery said in an Oct. 10 statement.
“I have nostalgia for playing Loteria because the biggest win I had before this was $500 on a Loteria ticket,” Boyd told lottery officials.
He bought the ticket at a Handy Mart on Charles Boulevard in Greenville, officials said.
Lottery officials said they gave Boyd a choice between taking $600,000 home now or receiving $50,000 over 20 years. He chose to take home the lump sum which, after taxes, came to $429,003.
Boyd said he plans to use the money to put a down payment on a house for his family and set some of it aside for his kid’s college.
“This is life-changing money for us,” he said.
Lottery officials said the game was introduced in March with four $1 million top prizes. Two $1 million prizes are yet to be claimed. The odds of winning are 1 in 1,224,945, records show.
Greenville is about an 84-mile drive east from Raleigh.
