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An insanely lucky woman in North Carolina accidentally won almost $750,000 on a lottery game that she didn’t even know she was actually playing.
Cynthia Harris of Cary, North Carolina won $736,874 on a $2 bet, playing Bison Bonanza – a digital instant game which features a progressive jackpot – on the North Carolina Education Lottery’s website and mobile app.
“I thought I was playing on Demo mode,” she told North Carolina Education Lottery officials.
The odds of anyone winning the lottery game’s top “Epic Jackpot” prize are 1 in 15.5 million.
Her win was the largest digital instant win since the North Carolina Education Lottery began offering digital instant games this past November.
Cynthia Harris of #Cary won a $736,874 Progressive Jackpot while playing the new Bison Bonanza Digital Instant game! Harris played a $2 ticket and won the top level ‘Epic jackpot.’ “I am a blessed person,” she said. Congrats on the win, Cynthia! https://t.co/muGYbMF71S pic.twitter.com/5d3uAUqH6l
— NC Education Lottery (@nclottery) May 14, 2024
“I was like, ‘Wait how did this just happen,” she said. “It still hasn’t set in yet,” adding, “I am a blessed person.”
She took the one-time lump sum payment, which left her with $526,866 after taxes, and plans to use her winnings to help take care of her mother.
As we have seen time and time again, there is no rhyme or reason to many of these big lottery wins.People can play the lottery for decades and never win anything worth noting.
And then there are people like Cynthia Harris, or Sean McIntosh of Maiden, North Carolina.
McIntosh recently won a $10 million prize from the North Carolina Education Lottery because he had a “wild hair.”
“It was actually the first time I’ve bought a $50 ticket. I won $100 earlier on a $5 ticket so I decided to give it a try,” McIntosh said about his win.
“If I get a wild hair to do something, I’m going to listen,” he told lottery officials about his decision to buy the $50 ticket.
His life hasn’t been the same since.
“It’s just been a blur since then,” he said. “When you buy it, you never really expect something like this to actually happen.”
Rather than take his $10 million prize as an annuity of $500,000 a year over 20 years, he chose the $6 million lump sum payment. After taxes. he ended up with $4,290,014.
A $10 Million Spectacular scratch-off left Sean McIntosh speechless after discovering he had won the top prize of $10 million. McIntosh said he didn’t know how to react. “It was actually the first time I’ve bought a $50 ticket.” Way to go, Sean! https://t.co/0WYidTH4nl pic.twitter.com/hEC2ahjTAS
— NC Education Lottery (@nclottery) May 2, 2024
McIntosh said he will use the money to invest and use take care of his children.