The odds of winning the lottery are pretty slim, but the chances of winning twice in a single day seem impossible. For North Carolina resident Kimberly Morris, this improbable event happened on Monday.
According to a press release from the North Carolina Education Lottery, Morris bought a Diamond Dazzler scratch-off ticket with a possible $4,000,000 jackpot. She scratched off a $10,000 prize. The ticket was purchased at her local Harris Teeter store in Wake Forest.
After collecting her prize money at the lottery headquarters in Raleigh, Morris decided to try her luck again, purchasing yet another Diamond Dazzler ticket that also had a possible $4,000,000 win.
This time, the mother-of-three snagged $1 million.
Morris didn't anticipate such luck. "I wasn't really expecting much," she said in the release. "I just enjoy playing the lottery."
She called her husband, John Morris, on her way home to share the good news, but he was skeptical.
"She was freaking out on the phone," he said. "I couldn't understand her, so I told her to slow down. When I realized what she was saying, I didn't believe her at first. I had to come home and see it for myself."
Morris had the choice of taking a $1 million annuity that has 20 payments of $50,000 a year or a lump sum of $600,000. She chose the lump sum. After required state and federal tax withholdings, she took home $417,012. She plans to share some of the money with her three children and invest the rest.
The $20 scratch-off game launched in September with three top prizes of $4 million and six prizes of $1 million. Morris claimed the first $1 million prize. Three $4 million prizes and five $1 million prizes remain to be claimed.
It seems insane that this would happen twice in a day, but statistician Ronald Wasserstein of the American Statistical Association says it's not that crazy.
"It is very unlikely that an individual will win two large prizes on scratch-off tickets on the same day, however, it's very likely that it will happen to someone somewhere," he said.
Wasserstein said it's difficult to nail down an exact figure as he'd have to know exactly how that particular ticket was sold in North Carolina. However, he estimates the probability of winning $1 million and $10,000 on two tickets from the state's scratch-off tickets is about 1 in 44,000,000.
Despite its rarity, Wasserstein said it will happen more than once in 2017.
"Since millions of people play the lottery every day, we can actually expect things like this to happen a few times a year somewhere in the U.S." he said.
However, Wasserstein said the only thing that can increase your chance of winning is to buy more tickets.
Congratulations to John & Kimberly Morris!! How lucky can you be? They beat the odds.
Wow! That's wild. Congrats.
Talk about luck !!
Million dollar ticket in rich neighborhoods,it's the n.carolina way ,im not surprised..
I'm hoping you're wrong on that but.
Congrats though.2x in 1 day is really something. Nice for her and him.
Congrats.
I do agree more times you're going to have to as the guy say but "more tickets to increase."
But i feel it should have TOP big winner's over 5,000.00 and up in all counties. Not just certain ones."
I saw the headline, I was like it must be Cassie.
I playing your 8620 for the mid today.
Good luck today.
Oh um NNNope...Wasn't me, even if we all wish ya know.Sam...
You're seeing i rack it up$$$ at times yes with the p4 often and pick 3 nice amounts$$$ yep.but not this game.
I am not always buying the scratch-offs, i do sometimes, but i do hear it happen more in best/richer areas. I hope it's not really like that.
I do win (have won hundreds i.e. 100.00 recent 4x month ago and then this week and prior week 50's
and 100.00 again but i do not really play them alot ...But my mom do lol i prefer better odds for me lol pick 4 and 3.
Good luck Sam with my key # 8620
Going to add it today as my other pick 4 #s in about 30 minutes or so.
now she can buy 5 apple X phones for $5000
Personally I don't play scratch-offs but at least there are guaranteed winners with those. Good for her, when it rains it pours.
I think the real bias in the win isn't so much it was purchased in an upper middle class area, but that it was purchased near the lottery headquarters. I hear of too many stories in Pennsylvania about how there are big winners in or around Middletown (The state's headquarters). Dauphin County isn't relatively populated like Philly, Pittsburgh, or the Lehigh Valley, but they turn out numbers more often than average in both that county and Lancaster County's Lititz. To be honest, it makes me sick that is skewed to benefit the Harrisburg Beltway.
In regards to the fact it was purchased in an upper middle class area, the law of averages make sense. Richer people tend to have more money to burn on the more expensive instant games and buy 5 or 10 at a time, thus, there will be more orders of them being made at those retailers. High end tickets sold in lower income areas are generally not going to have frequent replenishments at those retailers. If someone does buy a high end ticket in that area, it will probably be at one, maybe two, at a time.
I just bought a qp the other day out of a machine in a Harris Teeter here in Greensboro, NC and was lucky enough to get a straight and boxed win with it for 50/50 and also bought one of the $10 cards and won $100 on it & was so excited about it I showed it to the lady at the customer service desk...anyway she was telling me about this lady who won $10,000 on a $20 card but she said she thought it was on a red $20 card.
I thought she was talking about a win in her store but now I see she must have just meant in another Harris Teeter..evidently she did not know at the time about the other win but sure she does by now....if it was a red card then it could be another big win in her store...next time I go in I'll ask her about it.
That is unbelievable that she won 2 times big like that...who would have ever thought that could even happen!
A great big congrats to John & Kimberly!
I do know that I get more good wins at Harris Teeter stores than anywhere else...won $500 on a $30 scratch card there before...got in the car to scratch it off and scratched off $30 and said great I got my $30 back and be darned if they kept being more $30 wins.
I got so nervous when I was half way thru scratching I drove home to finish it & the whole card was covered with $30 wins to add to $500 & "no I do not work for Harris Teeter"...just saying they are lucky stores for me...
...and it really really was for John & Kimberly...we can only dream it will happen to one of us like that one day!
Congratulations on your big scratch off ticket wins! You are a lucky gal!
I was amazed that your $1M win wasn't cash, but rather an annuity! Ah, well.
Congrats to that Lucky Lady.
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