A routine midweek stop at a Raleigh convenience store turned into a $476,189 payday for one Carolina Cash 5 player on Wednesday night. The lucky $1 ticket, sold at Spring Mart on Spring Forest Road, matched all five numbers in the drawing.
According to the N.C. Education Lottery, the Quick Pick ticket hit every number in Wednesday's Carolina Cash 5 draw, landing the entire $476,189 jackpot. The Lottery's winners list also confirms Spring Mart as the retailer that sold the winning ticket and lists the full payout for that drawing.
Where the ticket was sold
As reported by CBS17, the ticket was purchased at Spring Mart, located at 5016 Spring Forest Road in Raleigh. At the time of that report, the winner had not yet publicly claimed the prize, meaning the new jackpot holder was still officially a mystery.
Cash 5 basics
Carolina Cash 5 is a nightly draw game that costs $1 per play and starts with a rolling jackpot of $100,000. The odds of matching all five numbers are about 1 in 962,598, so Wednesday's winner beat some long odds. Players can add options like Double Play and EZMatch, which change the way prizes work, but the core match-five jackpot keeps growing until someone wins it, according to Lottery.net.
How to claim
Draw-game prizes must be claimed within 180 days of the drawing. For prizes of $100,000 or more, winners generally need to claim in person at N.C. Education Lottery headquarters in Raleigh, where identification and proof of Social Security are required, as outlined in the Lottery's FAQ. Winners are advised to sign the back of their ticket as soon as possible, and to remember that federal and state tax withholdings apply to larger payouts.
Raleigh-area winners keep turning up
The Spring Mart jackpot is the latest in a string of six-figure Carolina Cash 5 wins in the Raleigh area, including a Holly Springs $301K win in late February. Local coverage of past jackpots shows that big wins often shine a spotlight on the stores that sold the lucky tickets.
Anyone who bought a Cash 5 ticket for Wednesday's drawing might want to give those numbers a careful second look using official results pages or by checking with a retailer. Information on past drawings and prizes is also available through lottery result sites. Retailers that sell winning tickets sometimes see a short-lived surge in hopeful customers, so Spring Mart could be a bit busier than usual in the coming days, according to Lottery.net.
