Saturday’s Powerball Made A North Carolina Millionaire

If you think about it, there are really very few heart-stopping or breath-taking moments that occur in life. Here's one that's guaranteed. You wake up on a Sunday morning and come across the news that Saturday night's Powerball drawing has yielded a one-million-dollar winner here in North Carolina.

Wait a minute. Didn't I buy a ticket for that? Lemme see...where did I put that? Oh, there it is tucked in my wallet. Let's look up the numbers. And then you discover that although you didn't match the Powerball, the other five numbers? Nailed it. Even without the "Powerplay" option, you've just won a million bucks. No chance that realization is not a heart-stopping/breath-taking moment. Now, as I've said many times, a million dollars is not retirement money. It is though, enough after taxes to make your margins disappear for the foreseeable future. I'm not greedy. At this point, I'd love to be able to try life without having to worry about the margins. You too, right?

Anyway, WBTV reports, "According to the North Carolina Education Lottery, the lucky winner bought the $2 ticket at the Jack B Quick on Connelly Springs Road in Granite Falls." Oh, and since I know you were wondering, the odds of pulling this feat off is about 1 in 12 million.

Not quite as huge, but still real world massive, a second winning ticket was purchased at a Harris Teeter in Durham for Saturday night's Powerball drawing that is worth $100,000. Both of these as-yet-anonymous winners have 180 days from Saturday to claim their prize(s).

As for the rest of us, tonight's (Monday, September 23) Powerball drawing has a total jackpot available of $208 million ($104.6 million in cash if you take the single payout option). The odds of this happening is 1 in 292 million. However, if you are the 1, you're going to need some advice.

There are some states that are luckier than others. There is no doubt about it. North Carolina made the list of 15 lucky states in the United States, according to OLBG. Everyone has fantasized about winning the lottery, whether it's the Mega Millions or the Powerball. Whether you're planning a lavish vacation, buying a house, treating a loved one, giving to charity, or all of the above, when we buy a ticket we always have a little bit of hope and our imaginations go wild when we hear about the unclaimed winning ticket...

When it comes to winning big on the lottery, which states are the luckiest? To determine where in America has the greatest likelihood of winning the big bucks, OLBG analyzed all lottery winners in the U.S. with a jackpot of $300 million or more. You can see the top 15 states below.

California was ranked 12th luckiest state despite having the highest number of big lottery winners, primarily because the state has such a large population that there are very few lottery winners, and the average winning ticket for a California winner is only $190.5 million.

North Carolina has won a whopping $1.1 billion between both lottery winners, making its average winning ticket $550 million, the highest in the country. As a result of its higher population, North Carolina didn't quite capture the title by itself, with a lower percentage of its population winning than New Hampshire.

In terms of lottery jackpot winners, New Hampshire and North Carolina share the gold for the luckiest states. Residents in New Hampshire have won a total of $693.7 million, which is an average of $346.85 million per winning ticket. As one of the states with the highest percentage of people who have won over $300 million, New Hampshire has the third smallest population.