Random ticket purchase results in $200K top prize win in North Carolina

• A lucky Asheboro woman won $200,000 from the North Carolina Education Lottery's Prize Link Multiplier ticket
• The win was truly surprising, considering that the woman picked the game completely randomly
• Three top prizes of $200,000 each remain in play from the Prize Link Multiplier

A randomly purchased lottery ticket brought a life-changing sum to a fortunate woman in North Carolina.

The North Carolina Education Lottery announced Thursday that a lucky Asheboro resident scored one of the top wins from its Prize Link Multiplier ticket.

Winning $200,000 was overwhelming and felt "unreal"

The lucky woman purchased her ticket at Zingo Express on North Main Street in Archdale.

While she had played lottery games before, the woman admitted that she often buys tickets randomly.

"That was my first time buying that ticket. I like to just pick random ones," the winner said in an interview for a Lottery official.

Then all of a sudden, she realized that her $5 Prize Link Multiplier ticket brought her a life-changing $200,000 top prize.

The woman recalled the exact moment she won the top prize and admitted it was overwhelming.

Moreover, she said: "It felt so unreal."

The fortunate woman said that after the initial excitement, she needed time to process the big win.

This is when she started to read the ticket's instructions again and again, just to "make sure" she was "looking at it right."

The Asheboro resident is no stranger to lottery games but she admitted she had won only smaller prizes before.

"I think $20 is the biggest before this," the woman told an official from the North Carolina Education Lottery.

Earlier this week, the Asheboro resident visited the Lottery headquarters to claim her big win.

After the applicable state and federal taxes, the woman collected $143,501.

Asked about her plans for the big win, the fortunate player said she intends to buy land and invest.

Plenty of prizes remain in play from the Prize Link Multiplier

The Prize Link Multiplier ticket was introduced at the beginning of April this year.

The cost of each ticket is $5, and it offers players a chance to win a prize between $5 and a top prize of $200,000.

While there were a total of five prizes of $200,000 each at the launch of the ticket, now, three remain in play.

The odds of winning a top prize from the Prize Link Multiplier game are 1 in 1,234,116.

A tier-two prize from the game awards $10,000 and the odds of scoring such a prize are 1 in 617,058. There are six such prizes up for grabs from the Prize Link Multiplier ticket.

On the other hand, a tier-three prize would bring the lucky winner $5,000 and there are seven such prizes in play.

The overall odds of winning any prize from the popular game are 1 in 4.31.

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