Man shopping for groceries lands a $2M scratch-off win

A retired veteran in North Carolina won a jackpot prize after his wife asked him to go shop for vegetables.

Shopping trip results in a jackpot win

On Wednesday this week, the North Carolina Education Lottery confirmed in a press release that a Gaston County man won the first top prize from one recently launched scratch-off game.

The name of the lucky winner, a Dallas resident, is Robert Moore.

The man who went shopping and decided to try his luck with the Lottery's $20 Win Big ticket was shocked when he realized that he won the first top prize from the game, a sweet $2m.

The incredibly lucky lottery player purchased his winning ticket at Walmart on Dallas Cherryville Road in Dallas.

On the day of the win, Moore was asked by his wife to go shopping.

"She asked me to run to the store. She wanted me to pick up some vegetables," the man recalled when interviewed by Lottery officials.

Once there, he decided to buy the $20 Win Big ticket as well.

Moore then went back home and handed the ticket to his wife to scratch it off.

This is when his wife told him: "You need to come in here." The lottery player said that he initially couldn't believe the win he scored after his $20 ticket turned into a $2m windfall.

At the start of this week, Moore visited the North Carolina Education Lottery headquarters to claim his big prize.

Although the Gaston County man had the option to collect the entire $2m through annual installments of $100,000 per year for the next 20 years, he selected a cash sum of $1.2m.

In North Carolina, lottery winnings are subject to state and federal taxes.

After the applicable withholdings, Moore's bank account grew by $858,000 and change.

It's no surprise that Moore didn't expect the big win and only a week before the scratch-off jackpot purchased a new truck.

Still, the windfall will come in handy as the retired veteran said that he plans to use part of the win to pay off his truck.

Two more top prizes remain in play from Win Big

Win Big was launched by the North Carolina Education Lottery at the beginning of last month.

The $20 scratch-off ticket offers players a chance to win prizes between $20 and $2m.

While at the start there were a total of three top prizes of $2m each, now only two remain in play.

The odds of winning a top prize from the Win Big scratch-off game are 1 in 1,729,260.

On the other hand, the scratch-off game also offers five prizes of $100,000 each with the odds of winning being 1 in 864,630.

The overall odds of winning any prize from this particular scratch-off ticket are 1 in 3.56.

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