Man hit 2 $1M lottery jackpots at same NC store. He visited again and won big a 3rd time
A man who won two $1 million lottery jackpots at the same North Carolina convenience store visited there again on Monday and landed another big prize, NC lottery officials said Thursday.
Terry Splawn of Concord bought all three winning scratch-off tickets at Sam’s Mini Stop on Old Charlotte Road in Concord, according to a lottery news release.
“It’s unbelievable,” Splawn said when he claimed his prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Wednesday, according to the release. “It certainly is fun to win.”
On Monday, he decided to buy a $20 Premier Cash ticket and won a $100,000 jackpot.
It’s the third time he got lucky at the Concord store.
In April 2017, Splawn scored a $1 million prize with a Millionaire Bucks ticket he bought at the store, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time.
‘What are the odds?’
The odds of winning $1 million in that game were 1 in 1.248 million, the Observer reported, citing odds listed on the lottery’s website at the time.
In March 2019, a $150 Million Cash Explosion scratch-off ticket from the store landed him another $1 million. The odds of winning $1 million in that game were 1 in 1.8 million, the Observer reported at the time.
“What are the odds of this happening?” Splawn asked lottery officials when he claimed his second $1 million prize, according to a lottery news release at the time. “I can’t believe I won the lottery not once, but twice! ... I just thought, ‘This can’t be happening.’ “
“This is rare, but not impossibly rare,” Jan Hannig, a UNC-Chapel Hill statistics professor, said of the odds of the same person winning two $1 million lottery prizes.
‘Defies logic’
A 2016 investigation by The Charlotte Observer found that some North Carolina lottery players won so often, in such big prize amounts, “that their good fortune defies logic.”
Lottery experts quoted in the Observer’s series said some winners were more than lucky and likely were gaming the system. In some cases, experts said, people buy winning tickets from players for less than the prize amount. The buyer cashes the winning ticket, while the actual player avoids the government’s spotlight.
The North Carolina lottery withholds monies owed to state or local governments. These could include delinquent child support payments or back taxes.
The Observer found players who beat staggering odds so consistently that statisticians said chances of being that lucky were less than one in a trillion.
The lottery has a protocol in place to vet repeat wins by a player, a lottery spokeswoman told the Observer at the time.
‘Really nice surprise’
In his Premier Cash win on Monday, Splawn beat odds of 1 in 3.08 million, according to the Premier Cash website.
“It was on Labor Day,” Splawn said. “So it was a really nice surprise for the day.”
After taxes, Splawn netted $70,756, lottery officials said.
Premier Cash debuted in August with four $2 million jackpots and eight $100,000 prizes. Three top prizes and seven $100,000 prizes remain, according to the lottery.
This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 6:00 AM.