This Small Town Store In North Carolina Sold A Big Winning Lottery Ticket

You never know just where that winning lottery ticket may be hiding.  We often hear of winners in Raleigh and Charlotte but it can happen in the small towns too.  This small town store in North Carolina sold a big winning lottery ticket.

Edgar Hernandez plopped down five dollars at the Xpress Market on Tuckaseege Road in Mt. Holly .  He purchased a lucky Cashword Multiplier scratch off ticket.  It paid off big time. Edgar's prize is $150,000 before taxes.

This lucky winner has already collected his prize at the North Carolina Education Lottery headquarters. After state and federal taxes were taken out, it is still a tidy sum.  Edgar Hernandez took home $106,876! That is awesome!  We don't know what Edgar plans to do with his winnings but we imagine he will enjoy figuring that out.

Ticket sales from scratch offs reportedly bring a lot to education funding in North Carolina.  According to the Gazette, tickets sales raise 2.8 million dollars a day on average for education. To learn more about this small town store in North Carolina selling a big winning lottery ticket, get details here from the Gaston Gazette.

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.