Lottery player’s ‘specific way’ of scratching tickets leads to six-figure prize in NC

Lottery players can be quirky, from the way they pick numbers to the days they play, but one North Carolina man hit it big with a “specific way” of scratching them.

Douglas Watkins of McDowell County does it in reverse, so to speak.

“When I scratch, I don’t reveal the prizes at first,” Watkins said in a Jan. 17 N.C. Education Lottery news release.

“I scratch the numbers to see if any match then I go back to check the prize.”

That’s how Watkins handled his $20 Big Win ticket, and he “started seeing zeroes” that added up to $100,000.

“When I went to tell my wife I said, ‘I think I won $100,000,’” Watkins said. “She didn’t believe it.”

The odds of winning one of Win Big’s six $100,000 prizes are 1 in 864,630, the lottery says.

He picked up his winnings Jan. 17 and it came to $71,756 after federal and state taxes, officials said.

His plan is for it to go in the bank, with a little set aside for a cruise, he said.

Watkins, who lives in Nebo, bought the ticket at the Country Market in Morganton, about a 75-mile drive northwest from Charlotte.

This story was originally published January 21, 2025 at 2:07 PM with the headline "Lottery player’s ‘specific way’ of scratching tickets leads to six-figure prize in NC."