Man tries lottery out of boredom, scores over $950K win
By Dean Hensley
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RALEIGH, North Carolina (WLOS) — Burnsville’s Matthew Shepherd told lottery officials he was sitting at home bored on the day before Thanksgiving and decided to try his luck with the North Carolina Education Lottery – digitally.
It paid off in a huge way.
According to a Dec. 1 news release from the N.C. Education Lottery, Shepherd tried a $5 digital instant and won a $952,821 jackpot.
“I was just killing time out of boredom,” he said in the release. “When it stopped at the jackpot I was like, ‘There’s no way.’”
The odds of that win were 1 in 10 million, the release said. Shepherd, 35, won the top level “Grand Fortune” jackpot in the Monopoly game.
The digital instant game features a progressive jackpot that can be won at any time.
“I was ecstatic,” Shepherd said. “I would’ve been happy to just double my money.”
He claimed his prize on Dec. 1 at lottery headquarters in Raleigh and, after required federal and state tax withholdings, he took home $683,651.
Shepherd said he plans to use his winnings to invest and possibly buy a new truck.
The jackpot reset at $150,000 and has climbed to over $431,000 as of Monday afternoon. Monopoly is a multi-state digital instant game. That means the progressive jackpots will grow higher, faster and winners could come from other states as well, the release said.
Yancey County has received $30 million in state grants funded by the lottery to help with school construction needs. More details on other ways money raised by the lottery made a difference in Yancey County can be found at the N.C. Education Lottery website.
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