Playing same lottery numbers for 15 years finally pays off for NC man — with a catch
Call him stubborn, bull-headed or just plain crazy, but a North Carolina man just won the state lottery after playing — and losing — with the exact same five numbers for 15 years, according to N.C. Education Lottery officials.
Patrick Donahue of Hendersonville won his $631,674 jackpot in the Carolina CASH 5 game, officials said in a release.
Donahue’s victory came with a twist, however. A man in Raleigh also won, officials said, so the money had to be split down the middle.
Each man received a $315,837 prize, which lottery officials whittled down to $223,455 after taking out federal and state taxes.
Still, the winning ticket was only $1.
“For 15 years, I’ve been looking at those numbers,” Donahue said in a news release. “It’s not something you ever think is really going to happen.”
He did not reveal his five prize winning numbers — and did not say if he intends to keep using them indefinitely.
Odds of winning a jackpot in the game are 1 in 962,598, officials said.
Donahue bought the ticket online via the NC Lottery Official Mobile App, but didn’t realize he’d won until a day later, officials said.
“It took me a minute to really believe it,” he said in the release.
The other winner, Charles Sullivan of Raleigh, used his own set of numbers, officials said. He claimed his money last month without comment.
Donahue picked up his money Monday at the lottery headquarters in Raleigh and told officials he and his wife intend to fix up their home and go on “a long-awaited trip with the rest.” Hendersonville is about 100 miles west of Charlotte.
“Probably next year, whenever the pandemic has gone away, we’ll do some of our traveling that we didn’t get to do this year,” he said in the release.
Carolina Cash 5 drawings are held every night and the current jackpot is $399,000
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 8:25 AM with the headline "Playing same lottery numbers for 15 years finally pays off for NC man — with a catch."