Lincolnton Grandmother Rakes In Massive Lottery Windfall

It isn't just the headline that a Lincoln County, North Carolina grandmother wins lottery. No, it's HOW she won the lottery. As a golfer, there's nothing that aggravates you more than hearing that someone got a hole in one on their first round of golf. Well, Lincolnton's Rachel Sadler bought her first every lottery ticket. And it came up a $4 million winner!

Rachel Sadler decided to make her initial foray into the world of lottery gambling at the Save Mart on East Main Street in Lincolnton. I like here "go big or go home" attitude to lottery buying as well. I mean, if you're gonna buy your first scratch-off from the North Carolina Education Lottery, why wasted time with a $5 ticket, right? Rachel plopped down $30 on a "Supreme 7s" ticket. In seconds, this grandmother became an instant millionaire to the tune of $4 million. This game made its debut last month. There are four, $4 million top prizes and 10 total, $100,000 prizes. With Sadler's win, there are still three, $4 million prizes and nine $100,000 prizes are left to be claimed.

Now comes my favorite part of any big lottery windfall story. It's my favorite life question that I'm begging to have to answer one day, "To lump sum, or not to lump sum." Rachel Sadler subscribes to my belief that none of us is promised tomorrow, so get what you can today. In other words, she took the lump sum payout of $2.4 million. After Uncle Sam and the Tar Heel State took their tax taste, Rachel was the recipient of a direct deposit totaling $1,716,009. As far as plans for the money, she tells WSOC-TV, “I’ve got a bunch of grandkids. I want to make sure they have a nice future.”

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.