A Cabarrus County woman won a nearly $2 million jackpot on her first play of a Digital Instant lottery game, N.C. Education Lottery officials said in a news release.
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Donna Gray, of Mount Pleasant, played the PowerMax Cash game for $1 on Aug. 1 and won a $1,939,727 jackpot. The odds of winning were 1 in 150 million.
“I’ve bought scratch-offs over the years, but this was the first time trying this,” she said.
“It started rolling and just kept rolling,” she recalled. “I thought it would be like $100 or something.”
Gray told her husband as soon as she could.
“I said, ‘I won big,’ but he didn’t believe me,” Gray laughed. “It took us both a couple days to believe it.”
Gray claimed her prize Tuesday at lottery headquarters. After required federal and state tax withholdings, she took home $1,396,798.
She plans to invest her winnings.
In the PowerMax Cash Digital Instant game, a player can play from 50 cents to $50. As of Thursday morning, the jackpot stands at more than $337,000.