Incredible win thanks to Power Play add-on
By Kate Northrop
A North Carolina woman was stunned when her otherwise $50,000 Powerball lottery prize turned out to be worth $500,000 instead.
One lucky North Carolina lottery player emerged from a Powerball drawing with a spectacular $500,000 Powerball win on a $3 ticket purchase.
Linda Wilkes of Roaring River purchased a Powerball Quick Pick ticket online for the Nov. 4 drawing and added the Power Play option for an extra dollar. What normally would have been a $50,000 prize without the Power Play add-on turned out to be worth $500,000 when she purchased the option, matched four white balls plus the red Powerball, and hit the 10X multiplier.
"I was in disbelief," Wilkes told the North Carolina Lottery. "Then I immediately called my mom."
The winning numbers in the Nov. 4 draw were 6, 18, 33, 48, and 53, with Powerball number 21.
Wilkes visited Lottery headquarters in Raleigh last Wednesday to claim her prize and took home $357,501 after federal and state tax withholdings.
"Everybody always says, 'What if I won the lottery, that would open a lot of doors,'" Wilkes remarked. "And then I did."
With the prize money in tow, Wilkes plans on starting the search for a new home.
The next Powerball annuity jackpot estimate for the drawing on Monday, Dec. 9 stands at the starting point of $20 million after one ticket from New York won last night's $256 million jackpot.
Powerball is played in 45 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays at 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Tickets cost $2 each.
Powerball lottery results are published within minutes of the drawing at USA Mega (www.usamega.com). The USA Mega website provides lottery players in-depth information about the United States' two biggest multi-state lottery games, Mega Millions and Powerball.
(Click to display full-size in gallery)
Congratulations and one hundred pennies netted you $450K more.
Strange isn't it that NC, not a politically advanced state in some respects @ least allow its players to play on-line. Then you have a more progressive state of NJ with one politician being a driving force to NOT allow players the convenience of playing on line.
Politically advanced??? What does that mean? I don't think blue or red politics has anything to with online lottery playing.
It's the same obliviousness trait . That's why they lose the tickets
I wonder what kind of Subaru she is going to buy....