RALEIGH – Joey Reece of Valdese buys a ticket for every Powerball drawing and his persistence paid off Saturday night with a $1 million prize.
“This is really going to help my family,” he said.
Reece bought his lucky $2 Quick Pick ticket from Jack B Quick on Connelly Springs Road in Granite Falls. His ticket matched the numbers on all five white balls to win the prize. The odds of that win are 1 in 11.6 million.
“It blew my mind,” Reece recalled.
He claimed his prize Monday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required federal and state tax withholdings, Reece took home $715,001.
“This is going to be a blessing,” he said.
Reece plans to use his winnings to help his family, help others in need, and invest.
His $1 million win became the largest of a series of big Powerball prizes won recently in North Carolina. In the four drawings occurring in the last week, prizes won included:
- $50,000 prizes won Monday in Pisgah Forest, Wednesday in Charlotte, and Monday, Sept. 16, in High Point.
- $100,000 prize won Saturday in Durham.
- $250,000 prize on Monday, Sept. 16, in Raleigh.
Wednesday’s Powerball jackpot stands at $223 million as an annuity, or $112.2 million in cash. The odds of winning a Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292 million.
Powerball is one of six games in North Carolina where players have the option of buying their tickets at a retail location or with Online Play through the lottery’s website or with the NC Lottery Official Mobile App.
Burke County received a $42 million grant, using money raised by the lottery, to help build a new elementary school. For details on other ways Burke County education programs benefit from lottery funds, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.