North Carolina Woman Credits Impatience With Her Huge Lottery Win

Patience is usually a virtue but impatience paid off for a Charlotte, North Carolina lottery winner.

61-year-old Debra Ross was shopping at the Publix on South Tryon Street and thought she would buy a lottery ticket. She got in line and it went on forever.  So Debra decided to buy her scratch-off ticket in the store's vending machine. Good decision!

Debra bought a $25 Spectacular Riches lottery ticket and after she got to scratching, she realized she had just won $100,000. "Oh my God, that's $100,000" she recalled to the North Carolina Education Lottery Officials.  She collected her riches this week.  After taxes and all the fees were taken out, Debra went home to Charlotte with $71,257 dollars in her pocket.

The 61-year-old network engineer has solid plans for her winnings.  She says she is going to pay some bills and save for her retirement.  To learn more get all the details right here from the North Carolina Education Lottery.

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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.