Winner seldom plays, but one ticket is all it takes

By Kate Northrop

WARRENTON, N.C. — A North Carolina woman purchased a lottery ticket with the intention of using a prize to help pay for a medical procedure and won $1 million.

An occasional lottery player now has more than enough means to cover a medical expense thanks to a fleeting decision to buy a lottery ticket to help pay for it.

Tonya Carter of Warrenton doesn't usually play the lottery but decided to give it a go last Thursday.

"I've only played the lottery once or twice before," she told the North Carolina Lottery. "My friends did always tell me that if I played, I would be the one to win."

The high school teacher figured that it would be nice to have a cushion to help pay for a medical procedure, so she put $10 toward a "Jumbo Bucks" scratch-off ticket at On The Mark on U.S. 158 Business West in Warrenton.

"I'm going to have surgery next week, so I wanted to try to get some extra money to help with that," Carter explained in a press release.

She'll be able to afford the medical procedure and more — that ticket ended up being a winner for the game's $1 million top prize.

"I didn't believe it," Carter recalled to Lottery officials. "I'm still in shock."

The lucky winner visited Lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Friday and was met with a decision: receive the prize as an annuity of $50,000 over 20 years or take a one-time lump sum payment of $600,000. She opted for the lump sum and took home a total of $430,503 after federal and state taxes.

The prize will not only cover her surgery, she said, but it'll help her move.

Carter's win leaves three out of eight top prizes of $1 million remaining in the $10 "Jumbo Bucks" scratch-off game, which launched in August 2024. There are also four out of eight second-tier prizes of $50,000 and four out of 16 third-tier prizes of $10,000 left to claim.

The overall odds of winning any prize in the game are 1 in 3.81.