Lottery ticket said NC man won the jackpot. He checked it ’40 times’ just to be sure

Daniel Kennedy won $1 million in the N.C. Education Lottery this week and he reacted to the news pretty much the same way most of us would.

He refused to believe it was true.

“I reread the ticket probably 40 times at least,” Kennedy said in a press release. “I was shocked. I didn’t know what to think at first. ... It’s been crazy.”

Kennedy, who lives 15 miles east of Charlotte in Belmont, beat odds of 1 in 1.2 million to win the money.

The Big Money ticket cost him $10 and was purchased at the Ingco Express convenience store in Gastonia, the press release said. The game offered three $1 million prizes and Kennedy apparently won the last of the three, according to the lottery officials. Lesser prizes ranged from $50,000 down to $10.

Kennedy had the option of taking either “a lump sum of $600,000” or getting the cash parceled out at $50,000 a year for 20 years, lottery officials said.

He went for the lump of cash, which was $424,503 after federal and state taxes, officials said.

Kennedy picked up his check Monday at the lottery headquarters in Raleigh, officials said. His spending spree will start by paying off his bills, then he intends to use the rest to help relatives, a release said.

This story was originally published November 4, 2020 at 4:07 PM with the headline "Lottery ticket said NC man won the jackpot. He checked it ’40 times’ just to be sure."