Man waiting for Best Buy to open plays NC lottery game — and wins huge prize. ‘No way’
A man waiting for a Best Buy store to open used his phone to play the lottery — and it paid off big time.
Nichalis Rider won $100,000 on an instant game and couldn’t believe his luck, according to the North Carolina Education Lottery.
“I just sat there thinking, ‘No way this just happened,’” he told lottery officials in a March 13 news release. “It was pure insanity.”
Rider, who is from Hillsborough, said he played the Robo Cash game after he had good fortune in the past. He previously won $5,000 and tried his luck again from a Best Buy parking lot.
It turns out, Rider beat 1-in-2 million odds to score the top prize in the game, which costs 50 cents to $10 to play. He told his wife about the win right away.
“She thought I was playing a joke on her so I sent her a screenshot,” Rider said.
The win was the real deal, and Rider kept $71,503 after taxes. The winner said he plans to spend some of his prize money on home projects and invest what’s left.
Hillsborough is in Orange County and roughly a 15-mile drive northwest of downtown Durham.
It’s not the first time someone hit the jackpot while trying to pass the time. In South Carolina, a college student bought a winning scratch-off ticket as she waited for her food order, McClatchy News reported in May.
This story was originally published March 13, 2024 at 1:46 PM with the headline "Man waiting for Best Buy to open plays NC lottery game — and wins huge prize. ‘No way’."
