David and Destiny Morgan of Marion said they plan to get their dream home after they won $200,000 playing Powerball.
“We’ve been looking for a while,” Morgan said. “We rent now, but this will help us have a good down payment for our own house.”
The couple beat odds of one in 913,129 to win the prize in Wednesday’s drawing. Their ticket was one of six in North Carolina that won $200,000.
Morgan’s wife, Destiny, didn’t check the ticket until the next morning while she was watching Good Morning America. “I looked at the ticket and couldn’t believe it,” Destiny said. She immediately called her husband at work.
Morgan, who operates machinery, said he had to stop what he was doing to digest the news. “I asked my wife if she was sure, and she was like, ‘I swear, I checked the ticket seven times.’ It was so incredible I had to stop so I could slow down and think.”
They claimed the prize Thursday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required state and federal withholdings, they received $139,002.
Morgan bought the $3 Power Play at the M & M Market on North Main Street in Marion. The ticket matched the numbers on the four white balls and the Powerball to win $50,000. Because he added the Power Play feature, the prize quadrupled to $200,000 when the 4X multiplier was drawn.
Ticket sales from draw games like Powerball make it possible for the lottery to raise more than half a billion dollars a year for the state. For details on how lottery funds have made a difference in all of North Carolina’s 100 counties, click on the “For Education” section of the lottery’s website.