RALEIGH — Melanie Melendez, of Charlotte, immediately picked up the phone to share her exciting news after she won $404,917 playing a digital instant game, N.C. Education Lottery officials announced on Wednesday.
“I called my daughter right away,” she said. “I started hollering on the phone.”
Melendez played a $5 ticket on Nov. 16 and won the top level “Epic jackpot” in the Wheel of Bonuses game, a digital instant game featuring a progressive jackpot that can be won at any time. The odds of that win are 1 in 6.2 million.
“It was spinning, and I was just thinking to myself, ‘Wouldn’t it be crazy if I won,’” she recalled. “You just never know when it can happen.”
After taxes, she took home $289,518.
She plans to give some money to her church, pay bills and invest.
In the Wheel of Bonuses digital instant game, a player can play from 50 cents to $30. After Melendez won the jackpot, it restarted at $50,000 and has grown to over $154,000 as of Wednesday morning.
Digital instant games are played exclusively online on the lottery’s website or on the NC Lottery Official Mobile App.
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