Big winners keep popping up!

March 9, 2012 Posted by NC Lottery at 4:20 PM

It was a lucky week for scratch-off and Cash 5 players!

Rick and Mary Hollar of Hickory have many decisions to make after winning a $1 million prize playing $4,000,000 Cash Blowout. So far, they plan to pay off their mortgage, purchase two new cars and take a trip to Las Vegas. Tashica Jones of Enfield in Halifax County says she plans to use the $150,000 prize she scratched off on her $150 Grand ticket to pay bills and buy a home for her family.

As for Carolina Cash 5, Talven Thompson, a retiree from Asheville, claimed two tickets he purchased for the March 3 drawing worth $251 and $118,831. He split the jackpot with Stephen McFadden of Winston-Salem, who won on a ticket he asked his roommate to buy for him.

Finally, we take you to Alamance County where Michael Morton, a resident of Elon, plans to pay bills after winning $100,531 in Tuesday’s Cash 5 drawing.

Best of luck to our Mega Millions players tonight who have the chance to win a $148 million jackpot! Powerball players are going for the big $40 million prize, which isn't too shabby, either.

Have a great weekend, Lucke-Zoners!

25 COMMENTS

3/16/2012 03:26 - Roger K.

yes! I have lost more than I have won,but I hoping that the day will come when I do win it BIG,then that will cover all the money I have spent playing with,and to Donate to the Education lottery...You win some and you lose some... That's all it is to it. You got to have loser and there will be winners.

3/15/2012 04:33 - Michael R.

NC is one of the worst states I've ever seen when it comes to the lottery. You can never ever scratch a winner off their tickets. In the pick 3, you rarely see popular numbers fall such as Trips, 123, 135, 246 in order. The pick 4s have a lower payout than any state I've seen and you will definitely not see 1234, 1357, or 2468 fall in order, because they are afraid of paying out money. It'll probably be another year before a Quad even fall again... One thing about number players is, they expect trips to fall, they expect quads to fall now and then. They expect popular numbers to fall. In the end, if no sign of them falling, then you get a base who will stop playing.

3/14/2012 09:50 - NC Lottery

@ DERRICK - For the record, you "lose more than you win" because that's how games of chance work anywhere you play them. It's what makes it possible for lotteries to pay out prizes - big and small - to lucky winners, and to raise money for education. We're glad w've been able to award more in prizes and raise more for education every year for five years. And we thank players like you for helping us do that.

3/14/2012 09:50 - NC Lottery

@ DERRICK - Hadn't seen you on the blog in a while! We here on the Communications Team are glad to answer as many questions as possible here in the Lucke-Zone. But sometimes questions - like the multiple ones you've asked - require research from folks in other divisions. Which is why we suggested you make a formal request for information instead of here on our blogs about winners and new games. Hope you have a great day and best of luck if you decide to play any of our games of chance.

3/14/2012 09:36 - NC Lottery

@ BK - That's the important point: whether you have played the lottery 100 times before or never before, the odds of winning each time you play a game of chance make it much more likely that you won't win a prize than that you will win a prize. It's always possible that a person can win, but it's never guaranteed, or more/less likely based on past results. So as we've said before, please only play if you enjoy it. If it's not fun for you, maybe it would be better not to play.

3/14/2012 09:24 - Barbara K.

Please don't feel to bad.I purchased Mega Million(Mega Plier) and cash five for the 3/13 drawing and as usual nothing.Still have just the $1.00 win for 4 years of playing the lottery.It is very hard to believe it is fair if you loose all the time.

3/13/2012 11:28 - clara m.

Good luck 2 all!

3/13/2012 05:22 - Derrick M.

Here's their reply via email(anwsered away from your view); You are correct in that the total number of winning tickets in the NCEL’s $200,000 A Year for Life game is 2,824,754. The total number of tickets printed for this particular game was 8,279,400, so the remainder of the tickets are non-winning tickets. All proceeds that are generated by our ticket sales that are not awarded in the form of prizes go towards our administrative costs with the remainder being returned to the state to be allocated based on the current legislation. ...........continue on next blog................

3/13/2012 05:17 - Derrick M.

@ PANTHERS & MACMILLION, I agree with you as well. Here's why we lose more so than we win; I asked "the $20 scratch-off ticket "$200,000 a Year for Life" has the following; 1) 2,824,754 winning tickets totaling over $120.5 million. 2) If the sales of the tickets pay the prizes, 6,100,000 losing tickets must be sold. How many more losing tickets(of that ticket) are sold to cover NCEL expenses & education? Also, could the total number of tickets printed per game be visible on the webpages of each scratch game? That information does play a factor in some players decision whether or not they should play a particular game". ..............Continue on next blog.............

3/12/2012 05:56 - april h.

I'm excited because I've been winning small amounts like $10,$20,&$50 here and there for the past few months its only a matter of time before I hit the big ones!!!

3/12/2012 04:56 - NC Lottery

@ MACMILLION - It's truly random. That's the only way to make sure it's fair :-)

3/12/2012 04:47 - Donnell G.

panthers...if you are going to buy multiple same tickets,,travel to different stores. ncel..you have to know where the winning tickets are going..how else would it be fair? I mean one place can win all the time if you did not know where the tickets are going. Yes, its random, but not truly random.

3/12/2012 04:08 - NC Lottery

@ PANTHERS - We're sorry to hear you didn't have good luck on those tickets. Please understand that it'd be illegal and unfair for the lottery to ensure there was a winning ticket placed specifically within a particular string of tickets on a roll. The winning tickets are distributed at random throughout the entire printing run of the game.

3/12/2012 02:50 - Roger K.

just waiting on my turn to win big,what a summer vacation we would have...

3/12/2012 12:50 - joe B.

the camels back was just broken !!! I bought 7 $20 tickets on cash blow out.Guess what not a winning ticket,overall chance of winning better than 1 in 3. I feel like others that's bogus. other people who belong to this web sight put in your complaints maybe someone will listen. STOP BUYING AND LET THE COMMISSION THINK ABOUT IT.

3/12/2012 10:49 - NC Lottery

@ PAULINE - Everyone who plays the lottery has the exact same chance as anyone else. Areas with winning tickets have non-winning tickets too; we've had Brunswick winners before, just not in this week's list.

3/12/2012 10:11 - Ursula W.

I feel it in my bones.......I'm gonna hit this thing soon!

3/11/2012 09:34 - harry b.

i have got to win.

3/10/2012 08:45 - bonnie r.

please pick me!!!!

3/10/2012 08:32 - shaking c.

IM Hit big

3/10/2012 12:57 - timothy w.

congrats 2 all! the winnings are in the neighborhood!

3/10/2012 12:00 - david k.

i wish i could one of those winners to pursue my bowling career

3/09/2012 11:56 - Pauline B.

amazed that some areas win big prizes over and over but our county is never shown as winning much of anything. I read somewhere that your chances of winning are less in Brunswick County. Why?

3/09/2012 09:48 - Brenda B.

i'm in it to win it!

3/09/2012 05:40 - Clayton P.

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Big winners keep popping up!

March 9, 2012 Posted by NC Lottery at 4:20 PM

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