Hey, NC lottery winners, 48 of you were shortchanged. Here’s how to win a bit more.

$4 is $4.

The N.C. Education Lottery says 48 Carolina Cash 5 game winners received $4 less than they actually won.

In Monday’s drawing, 48 tickets matched four of the five winning numbers and should have won a prize of $256. Players with those tickets got $252, lottery officials said. The winners beat odds of 1 in 4,163.

The mistake resulted from human error involving the calculations of what the pari-mutuel prize would be, lottery Executive Director Alice Garland said. With a pari-mutuel prize, the total available prize money for a particular prize level is split among all winners of that prize level, she said.

“It takes luck to win a prize, and everyone should get the full amount of the prize they won,” Garland said in a statement. “We regret that this error happened. Today, we conducted a review of safeguards that exist to prevent such an error to make sure they are understood and followed.”

Two of the winners bought their tickets through the lottery’s website, and adjustments can be made to their lottery accounts to provide the extra $4.

The other 46 tickets were bought at retailers.

The winning numbers were 4, 5, 8, 24 and 35.

Anyone who had a ticket matching four of the five numbers in Monday’s drawing should call 1-888-732-6235 so a review can be done. Once the lottery establish that a caller had a winning ticket matching four of the five balls in Monday’s drawing, a check making up the difference will be mailed to the winner.

This story was originally published February 13, 2018 at 9:18 PM with the headline "Hey, NC lottery winners, 48 of you were shortchanged. Here’s how to win a bit more.."