North Carolina Woman Wins ‘Birthday Present’ Of $25,000 A Year For Life

Think about the best birthday gift you've gotten recently?  Dinner at your favorite restaurant?  Surprise weekend away?  How about a new car?  Irma Richardson of Winston-Salem, North Carolina just won $25000 a year for life from the North Carolina Education Lottery.  Mic drop.  She wins.

As with most of the lottery windfall stories I share, I learn a new way to win that I've never even thought about before-much less put into practice for myself.  In this case, just days shy of her 60th birthday, Irma bought her $2 "Lucky For Life" ticket online.  I've got to be 100% honest, I didn't even know you could purchase tickets online (truth be told, I've never thought to look to see if this was possible).  Irma Richardson then matched all five balls (odd of doing this is 1 in 1.8 million btw) to win $25000 a year for life.

The quote Richardson gave the North Carolina Education Lottery is a classic.  “I love Online Play I’ve been doing it since it first came here.  This is a very nice early birthday present."  Thank you, Irma.  I believe I will file that under my "NO DUH" file. <g>  I'm sorry.  That's just my jealous streak coming out at someone other than me who just won $25000 a year for life.

Something else I learned is that $25ooo a year for life, is not necessarily that.  One has a choice.  Irma Richardson claimed her windfall on Monday.  She had a choice to make.  Sure, she could receive $25000 a year for life OR there was a lump sum option.  I've got to tell you, I'm all in on lump sum options.  Call me crazy if you want, but I could walk out my house tomorrow and have a meteor fall on my head.  Let me enjoy all of it now and for as long as I can.  Irma Richardson's $25000 a year for life was converted to a one-time payment of $390,000.  After the state and Uncle Sam took their taste, she walked out of the North Carolina Education Lottery office with a check for $278,851.

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.