NC gas station stop pays off big for Powerball player. ‘We kept looking at it’
A trip home for the holidays ended with a huge Powerball win for one lucky lottery player.
LoisMarie Familar of Los Angeles was visiting family in Gatesville when she played Powerball and netted a $150,000 prize, the North Carolina Education Lottery said in a Tuesday, Jan. 13 news release.
The winning ticket, purchased at the Gates Food Mart on U.S. 158, matched four white balls and the red Powerball in the Dec. 20 drawing. Familar would’ve won $50,000 but spent an extra $1 on the Power Play option, tripling her winnings.
“We kept looking at it because we thought we were looking at it wrong,” she told officials. “I don’t know how many times we checked it.”
The winning numbers in the Dec. 20 drawing were 4-5-28-52-69 and red Powerball 20, results show. The Power Play multiplier was 3x.
Familar was a number shy of the estimated $1.4 billion jackpot but still scored a sizable prize.
She claimed her winnings Monday, Jan. 12, and took home $108,016 after taxes, officials said.
“It was really good visiting my hometown,” Familar said, adding that she plans to use her winnings to pay a few bills, help family and donate to charity.
How much is the Powerball jackpot?
The next Powerball drawing is Wednesday, Jan. 14, with an estimated $156 million jackpot.
The game’s jackpot was last won Wednesday, Dec. 24 when a ticket matching all six numbers was sold in Cabot, Arkansas, netting a whopping $1.8 billion payout.
The lucky winner has the option of an annuitized prize of $1.817 billion, or a lump sum payment of $834.9 million, according to Powerball.
What to know about Powerball
- To score the jackpot in the Powerball, a player must match all five white balls and the red Powerball.
- The odds of scoring the jackpot prize are 1 in 292,201,338.
- Tickets can be bought on the day of the drawing, but sales times and price vary by state.
- Drawings are broadcast Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays at 10:59 p.m. ET and can be streamed online.
- Powerball is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.