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A North Carolina woman is celebrating a massive $4 million lottery win on a scratch-off game she has played since it first launched last year.
Tina Hansley, of Currie, recently purchased a $30 Black Titanium ticket from the Yaya Mini Mart on N.C. 210, something she has often done since the game launched in June 2023, according to a release from the NC Education Lottery. This time, however, she landed one of the game's top $4 million prizes and was "shocked" to see that it was her time to win.
"I asked the girl in the store to look at it to make sure I was looking at it right," she said. "Then I tried to settle down. I was shocked."
She wasn't the only one who couldn't believe her luck, as she laughingly recalled to lottery officials how she first shared the exciting news with her family.
"I called my children and my mom but none of them believed me," she said.
Hansley claimed her prize at lottery headquarters, where she had the choice to receive her winnings as either an annuity of $200,000 over the course of 20 years or as a one time, lump sum payment of $2.4 million. She ended up choosing the latter, taking home an impressive $1,716,009 after all required state and federal tax withholdings. The Pender County woman also shared an encouraging message to other lottery players hoping to follow in her footsteps.
"There's always a chance," she said. "You just never know so you try and see what happens."
According to the lottery website, the Black Titanium game launched in June 2023 with six top prizes of $4 million as well as 16 prizes of $100,000. Following Hansley's win, two of the top prizes and five of the $100,000 prizes remain to be claimed.