Austin Stafford of Martinsville, Va. tried his luck on a $3 Powerball ticket and won a $150,000 prize in Monday’s drawing.

Stafford bought his lucky Power Play ticket for Monday’s $1 billion drawing using Online Play on the lottery’s website. Stafford purchased his ticket in Guilford County where he works. He matched numbers on four white balls and the Powerball to win $50,000. The prize tripled to $150,000 when the 3X Power Play multiplier hit.

Stafford claimed his prize Wednesday at lottery headquarters and, after required federal and state tax withholdings, took home $106,516.

Saturday’s Powerball drawing offers a $1.5 billion jackpot, or $745.9 million in cash. The odds of winning a Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292 million. The jackpot ranks as the second largest Powerball jackpot in history and third largest in U.S. lottery history.

Powerball is one of four lottery games in North Carolina where players have the option of buying their tickets at a retail location or with Online Play through the lottery’s website or with the NC Lottery Official Mobile App. The other games are Mega Millions, Lucky For Life, and Carolina Cash 5.
Ticket sales from draw games make it possible for the lottery to raise on average more than $2.5 million a day for education. The current Powerball run has raised an estimated $26.1 million for education in the state.