For years, even before North Carolina had a lottery and a Powerball game, Carroll Swayngim of Asheville would try his luck at winning a big Powerball prize.

On Tuesday, he stopped at the Enmark Station on Tunnel Road in Asheville to buy, as usual, his tickets for Wednesday’s drawing. The next day, he got out his ticket and began his routine of checking his numbers, making a checkmark on his ticket next to any numbers that matched the ones drawn. He checked one, checked another, checked a third, and then the fourth.

“When I checked the fifth, I said, ‘Lord, have mercy’ and I yelled to my wife, ‘I think we have won one million dollars,’” said Swayngim at lottery headquarters on Friday. “She came in and said, ‘Are you kidding?’ The wife and I said a little prayer, and we talked about what we would like to do with our money.”

His Quick Pick ticket had beat odds of 1 in 11.7 million to win $1 million. After required state and federal tax withholdings, he received $692,500, Swayngim, a retired accounting manager, said he and his wife would pay off their mortgage, pay off all their other bills, help out their two sons, and save the rest.

“At this point,” Swayngim said Friday, “it is just like walking through a dream. All along you think about winning something like this. That’s the goal. But the most I’ve ever won before was $100, and that was in South Carolina, and I had to go there to get it.”

Saturday’s Powerball has grown to a $52 million annuity, worth $36.5 million if claimed as a one-time lump sum. Four North Carolina players have won Powerball jackpots so far.

Ticket sales for games like Powerball help the lottery raise on average more than $1.6 million a day for education. To see how lottery funds have made a difference in every county in the state, visit the “For Education” page on the lottery’s website.