Army vet checked Powerball ticket — and won so much, he couldn’t sleep. ‘So excited’
A Powerball player checked his ticket — and won so much, it kept him awake.
“I was so excited I didn’t even know what to do,” Donald Smiley told the North Carolina Education Lottery in an Oct. 22 news release. “I definitely couldn’t sleep.”
Smiley scored the windfall after he bought a Powerball ticket that matched all but one number picked in the Oct. 9 drawing. He spent an extra dollar on the Power Play option, making his $50,000 prize triple to $150,000, McClatchy News reported.
When Smiley discovered he won the six-figure prize, he couldn’t believe his luck.
“I was like, ‘Am I reading this right,’” Smiley, an Army veteran from Cherokee, told lottery officials. “I’m still so excited.”
Smiley bought his lucky $3 ticket at the Catamount Travel Center in Whittier, a roughly 60-mile drive southwest from Asheville. He kept $107,251 after taxes and hopes to put the extra cash toward bills.
Though Smiley got richer, his ticket was one number from scoring the larger Powerball jackpot prize. That prize stood at an estimated $337 million the night of the drawing, according to the game’s website.
What to know about Powerball
To score the jackpot in the Powerball, a player must match all five white balls and the red Powerball.
The odds of scoring the jackpot prize are 1 in 292,201,338.
Tickets can be bought on the day of the drawing, but sales times and price vary by state.
Drawings are broadcast Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays at 10:59 p.m. ET and can be streamed online.
Powerball is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
This story was originally published October 22, 2024 at 3:01 PM with the headline "Army vet checked Powerball ticket — and won so much, he couldn’t sleep. ‘So excited’."
