A set of special dates delivered Carlos Cortes of Matthews a $1 million Mega Millions prize.
“I had to look at it a few times,” he said. “It was a total surprise.”
Cortes combined significant birth dates to come up with his winning set of numbers and had “been playing them for a bit”.
He purchased his winning ticket through Online Play on the lottery’s website.
“I did a few double takes,” he recalled. “I realized it was the five numbers and I probably would have hit the ceiling if the last number hit. It’s a lot more than what I had so that’s the important thing.”
His $2 ticket matched the numbers on all five white balls in the Feb. 12 drawing. The odds of matching all five numbers are 1 in 12.6 million.
Cortes claimed his prize Wednesday and took home $707,511 after required federal and state tax withholdings.
The jackpot for Friday’s drawing stands at $79 million as an annuity prize or $54.4 million cash. The odds of winning a Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 302 million.
Players can buy Mega Millions tickets through Online Play on the lottery’s website, www.nclottery.com, with the NC Lottery Official Mobile App, or at any lottery retail location.
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