Lottery winner thought she got $20 from NC ticket — then she put on her glasses

Spending $5 and winning $20 in the North Carolina Education Lottery seems like money well spent, but Violet Holt of Garysburg read the ticket wrong.

“At first I thought it was $20. I didn’t have my glasses on,” Holt said in a lottery news release.

A closer look — with her glasses — revealed four more zeros. Her $20 Lightning 7s ticket was actually worth $200,000, officials said.

Holt was stunned and says the winnings will likely change her life forever. She intends to buy land, something she has dreamed of for years.

“My prayers have been answered,” Holt said in the July 18 release.

Odds of winning $200,000 in the scratch-off game are 1 in 1,220,100, according to lottery officials.

What makes the win all the more surprising, Holt says, is that buying a lottery ticket wasn’t on her agenda when she walked into the New Dixie Mart in Roanoke Rapids.

“I wasn’t going to get out of the car at first and go inside,” she said. “I only went in because I saw somebody I knew.”

Her prize came to $142,501 after withholdings, state officials said. That leaves plenty for a few acres.

The Lightning 7s game kicked off June 30 offering six $200,000 top prizes. Holt was the first to win a top prize, officials said. Lesser prizes in the game range from $10,000 down to $5.

Garysburg is about 92 miles northeast of Raleigh, in Northampton County.

This story was originally published July 18, 2023 at 1:16 PM with the headline "Lottery winner thought she got $20 from NC ticket — then she put on her glasses."