Lottery player’s $10 scratch off in North Carolina brings $1m prize

One store worker found a big fortune after trying his luck with a scratch-off ticket and winning a life-changing prize.

That’s the story of one Atkinson, North Carolina man, who won the first top prize from a newly launched scratch-off ticket.

Winner scored the first top prize from 50X The Cash

The lucky man purchased his ticket at Atkinson Minute Mart on West Church Street in Atkinson. Interestingly, the fortunate player works at the same store.

He decided to try his luck with the $10 50X The Cash ticket, which was introduced by the North Carolina Education Lottery only recently.

Surprisingly, after scratching off the ticket, the man realized that he had just won one of the game’s top prizes for a sweet $1m payday.

The odds of winning the top prize from the $10 ticket are 1 in 1,712,025.

The Atkinson man visited the North Carolina Education Lottery headquarters earlier this week to claim his big win.

As is the case with most big prizes, the winner was given the chance to either collect the full $1m via annuity payments of $50,000 for 20 years or take home a one-time lump cash sum of $600,000, before taxes.

Not unexpectedly, the lucky man picked the latter option and after the relevant state and federal taxes were applied, saw his bank account increase by $432,000 and change.

The Pender County winner did not confirm if he had plans for his newfound fortune.

Many prizes remain for grabs from 50X The Cash

50X The Cash was launched by the Lottery on January 30, 2026.

Each ticket costs $10 and grants players a chance to win a prize between $10 and $1m.

Offering a dozen top prizes of $1m each, after the most recent win, 11 such prizes remain in play.

A tier-two prize from 50X The Cash pays out $25,000 and there are 41 such prizes in play at odds of 1 in 466,915.91.

On the other hand, a tier-three prize from the new ticket pays out $5,000.

There are 44 prizes of $5,000 each in play, and the odds of winning one are 1 in 395,082.69.

Within the lower tiers, many more prizes between $2,500 and $10 remain in play.

The overall odds of winning any prize from the $10 scratch-off ticket are 1 in 3.79.

Image credit: Pixabay.com