North Carolina Lottery History
North Carolina's lotto is a notably young lottery. In fact, this lottery online came into existence only after state legislation establishing the lottery was signed in 2005.
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This lottery was created with one purpose: to raise funds for education. This is reflected in the official name of the lottery, which is the "North Carolina Education Lottery."
According to the NC lottery website, 100% of lottery proceeds go towards funding the state's education programs. Lottery players who don't win can find solace in the fact that their money is going towards educating the leaders of tomorrow.
What Is the NC Lottery Money Being Spent On?
50% of the proceeds go towards reducing class size ratios for young children, so teachers can give each child more personalized attention.
40% goes towards school construction and repairs. More schools mean less crowding for expanding student population, and repairs can reduce safety hazards and improve the quality of the student's education environment.
The remaining 10% of the proceeds goes towards college scholarships. These funds will go to Pell Grant students, which are students from lower income backgrounds. These students can use their scholarship money to help pay their tuition at any North Carolina colleges, whether private or public.
What Are the NC Lotto Rules?
The North Carolina lottery provides two main types of lottery.
Instant scratch-offs are cards with quick games that can be played by scratching away the coverings on different regions of the card. The rules of each game vary, borrowing themes from games like tic-tac-toe and crossword puzzles.
Generally, scratch-offs have a relatively high win probability but smaller pay-offs. Lottery drawings are the other type of lottery.
North Carolina has Pick 3, Pick 4, Cash 5, Powerball, and Mega Millions lottery drawings. The rules of each drawing differ, but each has the same basic principles.
Tickets for the drawings can be purchased at many retail locations, especially convenience stores like 7-11. There are also many online lottery ticket sellers who buy tickets, check results, and handle winnings payments for their users. It is always a good idea to check the reputation of an online lottery site before using its services.
Depending on the drawing, NC lottery players pick between 3 and 6 numbers, with the available number range varying from drawing to drawing.
Other variables to consider are ticket price (opting to pay more increases winning potential), drawing date, play type (basically how many numbers need to match and in what order), and the number of times the chosen numbers will be played. It is possible to play several drawings with a single ticket.
Players can view results on TV or through announcements online. Lotto winners should sign their ticket to prevent others from claiming it and contact the lottery officials through the number on the ticket. From there, players usually have a choice between long term payments over several years or a comparatively smaller lump sum payment.
While the chances of winning a drawing are pretty small (there's a 1 in 195,249,054 chance of winning the Powerball jackpot), the payouts are large enough to create instant millionaires.
Past NC Lottery Winners
One North Carolina lottery couple showed everyone the meaning of suspense when they claimed a $1 million lottery prize one day before the deadline. Nervous about the attention from winning, Raleigh Hill, the lucky NC lottery winner, stalled for months and guarded his ticket by hiding it in a variety of places, including his Bible.
Another NC lottery winner, Marsha McCain, was able to clear away all of her debts after winning $100,000 dollars. In addition to clearing away her debts, she was able to purchase land and continues to work as a chef.
Becky Ozmun, a convenience store owner who sells lottery tickets, won a dozen jackpots from scratch-off tickets during a period of 13 months. One of her winnings was a $150,000 prize.
NC Lottery Fraud
With its relatively short history, the NC lottery hasn't seen much lottery ticket fraud.
However, there has been a lot of attention placed on the frequency of lottery ticket jackpots among lottery retailers. There are multiple store owners like Becky Ozmun who have won an above average amount of NC lottery money.
The North Carolina lottery started tracking whether or not winners are involved in lottery ticket retail in 2008.
For now, while winning rates among retailers may seem disproportionate, lottery officials have so far seen no concrete evidence of fraud. NC lottery players are encouraged to directly verify lottery results to avoid being scammed by retailers who can claim a ticket is a loser only to later cash it in.
For now, while winning rates among retailers may seem disproportionate, lottery officials have so far seen no concrete evidence of fraud. NC lottery players are encouraged to directly verify lottery results to avoid being scammed by retailers who can claim a ticket is a loser only to later cash it in.