Somebody is holding a $539,000 lottery ticket in North Carolina. What to know
UPDATE: The North Carolina Education Lottery corrected an earlier email it sent to McClatchy News. The jackpot winner is from Franklin County.
The updated story is below.
A North Carolina lottery player won a half-million dollar prize — but might not know it yet.
The player has a lot to celebrate after buying a Carolina Cash 5 ticket online. It matched all the numbers picked in the Oct. 4 drawing, making it worth $539,813, the North Carolina Education Lottery wrote on its website and the social media platform X.
The winning numbers: 15-18-29-32-35.
Cash 5 is a rolling jackpot game that offers tickets starting at $1. To hit the jackpot, a person’s ticket must match all five numbers picked in a drawing, rules show.
Lottery officials have told McClatchy News they can’t pinpoint where players are when they buy online tickets. But they know the winner lives in Franklin County, a roughly 35-mile drive northeast from downtown Raleigh.
As of early Oct. 6, the lucky ticket holder hadn’t come forward, a lottery spokesperson wrote in an email to McClatchy News. In North Carolina, the winners of drawing games have about six months to cash in on their prizes.
This story was originally published October 6, 2025 at 11:20 AM.
