Two winners hit $1m wins from one scratch-off game in North Carolina

Two incredibly lucky lottery players scored $1m prizes from scratch-off tickets from the North Carolina Education Lottery in the same week.

Guilford County resident wins first Jumbo Bucks top prize

The Lottery confirmed Friday that a lucky Guilford County man became the first recipient of a top prize from its popular Jumbo Bucks scratch-off game.

The High Point resident, Kenneth Bennett, tried his luck with the $10 ticket recently.

The man purchased his ticket from Raceway on South Main Street in High Point.

To Bennett's surprise, this was his lucky day, as he hit the first $1m prize from Jumbo Bucks, a press release reveals.

The incredibly fortunate Guilford County man visited the Lottery's headquarters recently to claim his prize.

Similar to other top prizes, Bennett was given a choice to either collect the full sum through annual installments or instantly collect a lump cash sum.

The former option translated to payments of $50,000 per year for the next 20 years, resulting in a total payout of $1m.

The latter option was a lump cash sum of $600,000.

Not unexpectedly, the High Point resident picked the second option and after the applicable taxes went home with $429,003.

Bennett did not reveal if he had any plans for the unexpected windfall.

A second fortunate player wins a top prize from the same scratch-off

In an unexpected turn of events, the North Carolina Education Lottery announced that a second winner scored a $1m top prize from the same lottery ticket.

Again, on Friday, the Lottery confirmed that a Creedmoor resident won another $1m top prize from Jumbo Bucks.

Manuel Taveras, a Granville County resident, purchased his $10 ticket from Family Fare at Guess Road in Durham.

The lottery player was undoubtedly pleasantly surprised after turning $10 into a massive $1m windfall.

Similarly to the Guildford County winner, Taveras was presented with an option to collect a lump cash sum or receive the entire $1m in annual payments.

The Creedmoor resident selected the lump cash sum of $600,000.

Considering the applicable taxes, Taveras' bank account grew by $393,000.

Jumbo Bucks grants a chance for prizes between $10 and $1m

Released only a few months ago, on August 30, 2024, Jumbo Bucks offers players a chance to win prizes between $10 and $1m.

Initially, there were a total of eight top prizes but after the recent wins, only six remain in play.

The odds of winning one of the top prizes from the popular ticket are 1 in 1,398,273.75

Besides six $1m top prizes, the scratch-off ticket offers a tier-two prize of $50,000.

After the release of Jumbo Bucks, there were a total of eight prizes of $50,000 each. At the time of writing, seven remain in play.

The overall odds of winning any prize from Jumbo Bucks are 1 in 3.81.

Image credit: North Carolina Education Lottery