Whether it was a giant jackpot, a lucky ticket or a new way to play, there has been no shortage of news since the first lottery ticket went on sale March 30, 2006.
Billions of tickets later, we’ve been able to award billions in prizes and raise billions for education. Here are some significant event that helped shape lottery history:
• (2006) Tar Heel State snags first big-time jackpot: Here’s the news we shared after the Nov. 29, 2006 Powerball drawing: “The Shell Travel World in Halifax is buzzing with people wanting to know who purchased North Carolina’s first Powerball Jackpot winning ticket worth $74.5 million. The convenience store owners, employees and customers all kept saying how exciting it is to be a part of this and they hope it is somebody they know.” It turned out to be Jackie Alston, a corrections officer from Halifax.
• (2007) Players “race” for chance to win on NASCAR® ticket: On March 27, 2007 lottery players got the chance not only to win a prize instantly, but also their first chance to enter non-winning tickets for another opportunity to win big. The $5 NASCAR instant ticket started with five top prizes of $100,000 and three second-chance drawings for the chance to win a trip to a NASCAR-sanctioned race or one or more than 1,000 merchandise packages.
• (2008) First game with “prizes of a lifetime” goes on sale: Tickets for the $130 Million Blockbuster game hit stores on August 5, 2008. It marked the first game with a grand prize that would pay a winner an annual amount for the rest of his or her life. The eventual grand prize winner, Darlene MacQuaide of Fayetteville, won the $50,000 a year prize, which was guaranteed for at least 20 years to MacQuaide or her estate - and for the rest of her life.
• (2009) $88 million mystery: Who is the Powerball jackpot winner? For the second time in North Carolina Education Lottery history, a “perfect” Powerball ticket matched all six numbers. The ticket, for the June 20, 2009 drawing, was sold at the Petro Express on Cleveland Avenue in Kings Mountain. When the winner, Jeff Wilson of Kings Mountain, came forward just days later, he was still planning to attend graduate school later that year.
• (2010) On heels of Mega Millions merger, another Powerball jackpot: Just six days after Mega Millions tickets went on sale in North Carolina, our state had its third jackpot winner for its other multistate jackpot game, Powerball. The winning ticket, sold at the Wilco on Smokey Park Highway in Asheville, won the $141.4 million annuity in the Feb. 7, 2010 drawing. The winner turned out to be Frank Griffin, a retired firefighter from Asheville. Just a few months later, our state’s first-ever Mega Millions jackpot winner, Mike Manheim of Greensboro, won $12 million in the May 28, 2010 drawing.
• (2011) Lottery celebrates birthday with record year, second ‘Mega’ jackpot: After turning five years old in March 2011, the lottery finished the fiscal year on June 30 with record sales, prizes to players and earnings for education. That fall, North Carolina met its second Mega Millions jackpot winner. James Jones, a retired banker from Greenville, won $57 million in the Sept. 30 drawing. “For my family, it will mean the ability to finish the education of our grandchildren and their grandchildren,” said Jones. “For my daughters, it will certainly mean a less stressful financial life and the ability to follow their life ambitions.”
• (2012) Lucke-Rewards program begins for more chances to win: October 1, 2012 was a milestone for lottery players. Since then, players have been entering tickets for points and using them to enter weekly and monthly drawings at no extra cost for the chance to win cash and other prizes. Since then, players have earned more than 234.9 million points that they’ve used to enter drawings more than 12.4 million times - to win more than $1.5 million in prizes!
• (2013) Players record 49 prizes of $1 million in one year: Farmers, a waitress, a prekindergarten teacher, and an accountant were among those winning $1 million or more in lottery prizes during fiscal year 2013. The winner came from 27 different North Carolina counties. Twenty-six of the $1 million wins were won on instant tickets, 22 came thanks to draw games and one prize was awarded in the Holiday Millions second-chance drawing.
• (2014) Lottery partners with Papa John’s on scratch-off ticket: In September 2014, Papa John’s, scratch-off tickets bearing the popular pizza chain’s name went on sale. In a first for the lottery industry, every $2 ticket featured a redeemable bonus code for a free Papa John’s menu item or discount. The game offered the chance to win up to $20,000 instantly, and tickets could be entered into a special drawing to award winners free pizza for a year.
• (2015) ‘Ultimate Millions’ tickets offer chance to win $10 million prizes: The biggest instant scratch-off game in state history, Ultimate Millions, started on Sept. 1, 2015 with four top prizes of $10 million. The game featured 18 prizes of $1 million that could be won instantly and three more that could be won in second-chance drawings.
• (2016) At $1.6 billion, largest jackpot in world history gets the spotlight: Although North Carolina did not have its fifth Powerball player win a share of the record jackpot, interest in the game netted 19 prizes of $50,000 to $2 million in North Carolina. The 20-drawing jackpot run yielded $20 million in prizes and $38 million in earnings for education in our state.
Which event do you think was most memorable in the first decade of the lottery?
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