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RALEIGH Jeff Wilson beat some very long odds – 1 in 195.2million – to win Saturday's $88.1million Powerball drawing.
Not bad, considering he didn't even buy the winning ticket.
Wilson, 27, of Kings Mountain will take home a lump sum of about $29million after getting the winning ticket from his father, Bill.
Bill Wilson bought a handful of tickets at a convenience store just before the drawing's deadline on Saturday night. Then, like he has done for years, he let his two sons and daughter pick from the pile.
Jeff Wilson happened to pick correctly.
“I didn't believe it,” the winning Wilson said at a news conference Tuesday. “I still don't believe it. I don't know if I'm going to wake up and this all have been a dream.”
Because Wilson chose to take his winnings in a lump sum, rather than in an annuity, his actual winnings were just over $42million. After taxes, he will receive about $29million.
Wilson, a UNC Charlotte alum who is about to start graduate school in public administration, said he had not slept more than a few hours in the past three days. He said he's not sure how he'll spend the money, but said he had promised a few friends to take them on a vacation to Hawaii.
“It's time to enjoy life a little bit,” he said.
Wilson said the craziest thing he might buy would be a few fast boats. He said he plans to buy a house and a new car. But he said he wants to spend some of the money on worthy causes, such as helping children's hospitals.
He said he's also interested in helping put his nephew through school.
“This is the education lottery, after all,” he said.
That must have been music to the ears of Tom Shaheen, the lottery's executive director, who called Wilson an “ideal winner.”
“He's a great young man,” Shaheen said.
Lottery officials said having a winner in the state will boost sales, noting there was a spike in 2006 when the state had its first winner in the multistate Powerball game.
The Wilsons plan to keep playing. Bill has already bought tickets for the next drawing.
“I'm a lottery freak,” Bill Wilson said. “You'll probably see us back here one day.”
This might not be the first time the Wilsons beat the odds to win at the lottery.
In 2005, someone named Jeff Wilson took home $25,000 from a Powerball drawing on a ticket purchased in Blacksburg, S.C., just across the state line from Kings Mountain. North Carolina did not have a lottery at that time.
But Wilson, who calls himself an average guy, could not be reached after the news conference to confirm he had been a previous winner.
What are the odds?
