A North Carolina man won $1 million on a $10 scratch-off, after winning $100,000 a few months ago

Oscar Mendoza of Sanford won a $1 million top prize on a $10 Jumbo Bucks scratch-off, three months after winning $100,000 on a different game. The odds to win the top prize are 1 in 1,596,996.

Mendoza bought the ticket at the Circle K on South Horner Boulevard in Sanford, and claimed the prize at North Carolina lottery headquarters on Friday. His earlier win came in May when he won the top prize $100,000 on a $30 $100,000 Cash Payday ticket (odds of the top prize 1 in 76,752), the same game where a Gastonia woman won $100,000 on her first-ever scratch-off a few weeks later.

The $1 million prize gave him a choice: $50,000 a year for 20 years, or a $600,000 lump sum. He took the lump sum and, after state and federal withholdings, kept $432,063. Nearly every winner makes the same call, and the trade-off is in lump sum vs. annuity.

Mendoza is extremely lucky as the odds to win the top prize on both games are around 1 in 122 billion if buying one ticket for each game.

Jumbo Bucks costs $10 and debuted in June with five $1 million top prizes. Three top prizes are still unclaimed, and the game rates 70.8 on our ValueScore™ with a 74.9% payout percentage and overall odds of 1 in 3.84. The rest of the state's games are on our North Carolina page.

Sources

North Carolina Education Lottery: Lee County man bags $1 million prize, his second major lottery win