A North Carolina teenager is now a millionaire thanks to a $10 scratch card purchased by his sister.
Jaylen McLean, 18, plans to buy an Audi with his $1 million winnings after his brother, Dasha Cyrus, bought Jumbo Bucks tickets on his behalf on May 21.
“He had a huge smile on his face, it was so big, he looked like the Venom character,” Silas told North Carolina Education Lottery officials.
According to FOX 8, Silas bought the ticket later that night at the Valero in Fayetteville and watched his brother scratch it up.
McLean, the youngest of five children, presented her winning ticket to North Carolina Education Lottery officials and received her share of the prize on May 22.
Click here to resize this module
McLean asked her sister to buy her a scratch card, but it was her who decided to buy a Jumbo Bucks ticket at the Valero on South McPherson Church Road.
Jumbo Bucks tickets will first go on sale on June 6, 2023, with a top prize of $1 million.
According to the NC Education Lottery website, the rules of the game are to match the scratched-off numbers with the winning number.
Any ticket buyer who lands a 10X symbol will win 10 times the prize displayed on it.
Jumbo Bucks ticket holders have a chance to win anywhere from $1,000 to $1 million, and as of now, only two grand prize tickets have yet to be purchased in North Carolina.
McLean told North Carolina Education Lottery officials he feels like “the luckiest guy in the universe.”
“How many 18-year-olds win an award like this?” he added.
The new millionaires had the choice of walking away with the $600,000 or taking the $50,000 prize as an annuity for 20 years.
A news release from the North Carolina Education Lottery confirmed McLean's decision to opt for the annual annuity.
This means that the 18-year-old will receive $50,000 each year until the full $1 million prize is paid out.
Under the terms of the pension, Mr. McLean will receive annual checks of $50,000 until he turns 38.
But he still received his first payment, which was $35,753 after state and federal taxes were withheld, from North Carolina Education Lottery headquarters on May 22.
McLean has yet to reveal what he plans to do with his $1 million prize, but so far he plans to use some of it to buy an Audi.
Earlier, an 18-year-old in North Carolina won nearly $2 million on his first lottery purchase.
Donnie Leviner told the North Carolina Department of Education that he also received his lottery winnings on scratch cards, and that he had a “gut feeling” that he should buy them.
