Tina Reffo of Raleigh scratched an MGM Resorts $25,000,000 Casino Cash ticket, won $1 million, and didn’t realize it until a week later.
She originally bought two scratch-off tickets at the Circle K on Fayetteville Road in Raleigh last Thursday and won enough on those to buy two more.
“I didn’t think I’d won,” she said Wednesday. “It’s been sitting in my car since last Thursday.”
In that time, she took her car to get cleaned and thought nothing of the tickets sitting in her glove box.
On Wednesday morning, she retrieved the tickets so she could submit them to the game’s second-chance drawing. She checked the tickets again and thought “well, wait a minute,” as she saw the $1 million prize. In disbelief, she sent a picture of the ticket to her daughter, who confirmed the win.
“Who would’ve ever thought my name would be on a big check like that!” she said. “I don’t buy them that often.”
Reffo had the choice of taking a $1 million annuity that has 20 payments of $50,000 a year or a lump sum of $600,000. She chose the lump sum. After federal and state tax withholdings, she took home $424,503. Reffo said she plans to use the money to buy a house.
The $10 ticket launched in June with three top prizes of $1 million. One top prize remains to be won.
The game also offers VIP trips to an MGM resort in Las Vegas in the second-chance drawing, including round-trip airfare for the winner and a guest as well as ground transportation to and from the winner’s home, the resort, and the airports; a three-night stay for the winner and a guest at the Las Vegas MGM Resort Property of the winner’s choice; and up to $2,000 spending money.
Seven trips have been won in the first two drawings. Three trips will be won in the final drawing. The date for the third drawing has not been set.
Ticket sales from games like MGM Resorts $25,000,000 Casino Cash make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $700 million a year for education. For details on how lottery funds made a difference in all of North Carolina’s 100 counties, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website.
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