Manuel Taveras Paulino, a Creedmoor local, just turned a $10 scratch-off ticket into a massive $1 million windfall. The lucky winner purchased the winning Jumbo Bucks ticket at the Family Fare on Guess Road in Durham, proving yet again that sometimes, the odds can be in your favor. In what can only be described as a life-changing moment, Paulino's choice to play the lottery turned out to be fortuitously lucrative.
The story comes to us from the North Carolina Education Lottery, which reported that when Paulino arrived at lottery headquarters on Friday, he was presented with an interesting decision. He could opt for an annuity of $50,000 a year over the next 20 years or take a lump sum of $600,000. In a move that many might empathize with, he chose the immediate gratification of a lump sum, walking away with $393,000 after the government took its cut.
