NC man ‘kept looking’ at his lottery ticket in disbelief. Then it hit him: He won big
A North Carolina man stopped at his local convenience store, bought a $10 scratch-off ticket and returned home a million-dollar winner, state lottery officials said Friday.
Dewey Smith of Belmont stared at his 50X The Cash ticket ticket in disbelief.
“I kept looking at it and kept looking at it, and then I ran it through the scanner and then I knew it was real,” Smith told officials after claiming his prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Thursday, according to a lottery news release.
He beat odds of 1 in 3.44 million, according to the lottery website.
The Gaston County man bought the ticket at his local Kingsway on Market Street in Cramerton.
“I’m really excited,” he said. “I just couldn’t believe it.”
Smith could have taken the $1 million as an annuity of 20 payments of $50,000 a year or as a $600,000 lump said. He chose the lump sum, netting $424,503 after taxes., officials said.
He became the third $1 million winner in the game, which debuted in February. Three of the top $1 million prizes remain.