Visitor from South Carolina hits ‘Epic jackpot’ in North Carolina. ‘I was so excited’
A lottery player was visiting from South Carolina when she scored an “Epic jackpot” win in North Carolina.
“I was so excited,” Tawney Horn told the N.C. Education Lottery. “I really was just sitting there playing that game like I always do.”
Horn’s trip to North Carolina took a lucky turn when she tried her go-to online game, the Wheel of Bonuses. She spent $10 on a ticket that beat 1-in-3.1 million odds to hit the jackpot.
“That’s my favorite game,” the winner told lottery officials in an Aug. 5 news release. “It’s the only one I really play.”
After taxes, Horn is taking home $186,326 of her $260,591 prize, and plans to do “something special” for her kids.
Horn lives in Fort Mill, South Carolina, which is near the North Carolina border, and a roughly 20-mile drive south from uptown Charlotte.
When asked where Horn was when she tried her luck, a North Carolina lottery spokesperson told McClatchy News via email that officials don’t “have the exact location of players who win prizes playing digital instant games.” In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the lottery said those who buy tickets don’t have to be state residents but “do need to be physically located within NC borders.”
It’s not the first time someone has bought a lucky lottery ticket while traveling to North Carolina. In July, an Alabama man was working in the state when he won big, McClatchy News reported.
This story was originally published August 5, 2024 at 3:34 PM with the headline "Visitor from South Carolina hits ‘Epic jackpot’ in North Carolina. ‘I was so excited’."
