Lottery player’s gas station ritual wins him the jackpot in NC. ‘I saw more zeroes’
A man’s simple habits won him a $200,000 jackpot in the North Carolina Education Lottery, and he doesn’t mind giving tips.
“I usually like to buy tickets when I stop for gas,” Demarte Harris said in a lottery news release. “I like playing the new games.”
He did both Sunday, Jan. 26, while at the Kangaroo Express on Statesville Road in Salisbury, about a 40-mile drive northeast from Charlotte.
Harris got gas and added a $5 ticket in the $200,000 Money Rush game, which launched Jan. 7.
Like a lot of lottery winners, he was initially skeptical as the scratching got better and better.
“I saw a two and then zero zero so I thought I won $200,” Harris recalled. “Then I saw more zeroes. I was pretty excited.”
The odds of winning the game’s top prize are 1 in 1,219,635 and Harris was the first to nab one, officials said. Three more wait to be won.
Harris collected his winnings Monday, Jan. 27, at lottery headquarters and took home $143,501 after federal and state taxes.
His plan is to use it to buy a house, he told officials.
This story was originally published January 28, 2025 at 10:49 AM with the headline "Lottery player’s gas station ritual wins him the jackpot in NC. ‘I saw more zeroes’."