A Tennessee man won $5 million on a North Carolina scratch-off he bought on a work trip

A man from Hampton, Tennessee has won a $5 million top prize on a North Carolina scratch-off he bought while working across the state line. According to the North Carolina Education Lottery, Shannon Hilmon bought the $30 Millionaire Bucks ticket at Newland Quality Mart on Cranberry Street in Newland, a stop he made often when work took him to the area.

He had already played a couple of scratch-offs before trying one more. Hilmon sat in his car to scratch it and found the top prize of $5,000,000. "I didn't think it was real," he said. "We are very blessed."

He drove to his wife's workplace to tell her in person. "I thought someone was going to jump out and say, 'April Fools!'" she said. "I was shaking and laughing." The couple told the lottery they plan to pay bills, help their children and their church, and possibly buy a car.

The ticket is a better than the average $30 game

Millionaire Bucks returns 80.3% of sales as prizes, ahead of the 77.2% average across the 136 active $30 games we track nationally. Overall odds are 1 in 3.04.

It rates 79.5 on our ValueScore™, fourth among North Carolina's ten active $30 games. MAX-A-MILLION leads that group at 84.3 and 200X The Cash is second at 83.3. North Carolina's active games average 72.2% payout, so this ticket sits eight points above the state's typical shelf.

The game went on sale October 1, 2024 with four top prizes of $5 million. Two remain, in a run our data has about 45.3% sold.

The cash option came in at 60%, again

Hilmon chose $3 million up front as the lump sum over the annuity $250,000 a year for 20 years. That lump sum is 60.0% of the advertised $5 million, the same ratio the Goldston winner was offered days earlier on a $10 million prize.

What the state line meant for his tax

The lottery withheld $839,692 and paid him $2,160,308. That is 27.99%, made up of the flat 24% federal rate for withholdings and North Carolina's 3.99% state income tax, or $119,692.

Tennessee charges no income tax and does not tax lottery winnings. That normally works in a resident's favor, though it applies to Tennessee's own games. A prize won in North Carolina is North Carolina income, and the state withholds from residents and nonresidents alike.

Withholding is also not the final bill. A $3 million prize reaches the top 37% federal bracket, and if it were his only income for the year the federal tax would come to about $1.07 million, so the winner will owe 13% more next April or $347,000 more than the amount already held back. Our lottery tax calculator runs both figures for any prize in any state.

Sources

North Carolina Education Lottery: Tennessee couple didn’t think the $5 million scratch-off prize was real