Man convinced he’s destined to win NC lottery jackpot makes it happen with $5 ticket

Lottery players often have routines for luck, but in the case of Ronald Bryant, he swears it’s fate that lead him to win in the North Carolina Education Lottery.

Bryant paid $5 for a 20X The Cash ticket at the C&S Food Mart in Tarboro, and walked out with a jackpot in his hands.

“I always felt that one day I was going to get it,” Bryant said in a March 27 news release.

The part that surprised him was the amount: $250,000. That’s the top prize in the game and odds of winning it are 1 in 1,456,185.

“I looked at it and said, ‘I don’t believe this. This can’t be true,’” he said, per the release.

Bryant, who lives in Tarboro, picked up his winnings at lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Thursday, March 27, and it came to $179,376 after federal and state tax withholdings.

He already has a big plan for spending it.

“My house needs some work so I can use this to help with that,” Bryant said in the release.

The 20X the Cash game is played by matching scratched-off numbers to a set of winning numbers on the card. It launched in February with eight top prizes and six remain.

Tarboro is in Edgecombe County, about a 75-mile drive east from Raleigh.

This story was originally published March 28, 2025 at 12:35 PM with the headline "Man convinced he’s destined to win NC lottery jackpot makes it happen with $5 ticket."