When Betty Hill of Simpsonville, S.C., arrived in Raleigh on Tuesday to claim a lottery prize, she didn’t know her ticket carried a $1 million win.

“I was like, ‘Is this really happening to me,’” she laughed. “I was surprised it was that large.”

Hill said she knew she won a significant prize when she scanned her ticket and it instructed her to claim at lottery headquarters, but she waited until she arrived in Raleigh to find out how much she won.

“Whatever it was, it was going to be more than I have now,” Hill said.

She bought her lucky $1,000,000 Loteria ticket from the Smokey Express on Soco Road in Maggie Valley. Hill said she has a timeshare in Maggie Valley, so she comes to North Carolina frequently.

“I stopped to buy the ticket at the station I always like to stop at,” she said.

After Hill found out how much she won, she had a decision to make. She could choose to receive the prize as an annuity of $50,000 over 20 years or a lump sum of $600,000. She chose the lump sum of $600,000 and, after required state and federal tax withholdings, took home $430,503.

“I’ve never won anything like this before,” Hill said.

The $1,000,000 Loteria game debuted in March 2024 with four top prizes of $1 million. One $1 million prize remains to be claimed.

For details on how $3 million raised by the lottery made a difference for education programs in Haywood County last year, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.