NEED TO KNOW
- Gracie Burgess of North Carolina won $150,000 on a scratch-off she was gifted by her grandmother
- She told lottery officials that her grandmother buys each family member a lottery ticket every year for Christmas
- Having collected $107,626 after tax withholdings, Burgess revealed the two plans she has for her windfall
A North Carolina woman is making plans for the unexpected windfall she had over the holidays.
Gracie Burgess of Apex was celebrating Christmas with more than 20 family members when she was gifted a scratch-off by her grandmother. It came as part of a long-standing tradition of her grandma gifting each family member a $5 lottery ticket.
Once she discovered that she was a top prize winner of $150,000, Burgess said everything became “a little chaotic.”
“She was in tears,” Burgess told lottery officials of her grandmother’s reaction to her win, adding, “She loved it.”
NC Education Lottery
Burgess’ grandmother bought the winning Peppermint Payout ticket from Han-Dee Hugo’s on Jenks Road in Apex.
After required state and federal tax withholdings, Burgess collected $107,626 from the NC Education Lottery Headquarters in Raleigh.
She revealed to lottery officials that she is planning to use some of the money to fix her car and save the rest.
Her win comes just two months after the Peppermint Payout game launched with three top prizes of $150,000. As of Jan. 2, there was still one prize waiting to be claimed.
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There is a 1 in 1,353,300 chance of winning the top prize playing Peppermint Payout, according to lottery officials.
A man in Michigan recently had a good fortune playing the Super Raffle game. The 68-year-old said his wife “stopped breathing for a minute” when she found out how much he’d won.
“I really liked the odds of the Super Raffle game, so I bought a ticket here and there,” he told lottery officials. “I checked my raffle number on MichiganLottery.com the day of the drawing and couldn’t contain myself when I found out I’d won the $6 million top prize.”
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He opted for a lump sum payment of $4.1 million rather than the yearly payments for the full amount, lottery officials said.
If you or someone you know is struggling with a gambling problem, please contact the National Problem Gambling Helpline Network at 1-800-522-4700 or go to gamtalk.org.
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