Haley Michael of Sanford stood in her kitchen Friday morning cooking lunch for her daughters when out of the blue she hit an $865,960 Digital Instant jackpot.
2026-09-15 09:17:32
“I ran to my bedroom freaking out,” she laughed. “My daughters didn’t know what was going on.”
Michael played for $1 and won the top level ‘Epic jackpot’ in the Bison Bonanza game. The digital instant game features a progressive jackpot that can be won any time. The odds of that win are 1 in 31 million.
“I was on the ground crying,” Michael recalled. “Then I called my husband and told him, ‘I won the lottery.’ He didn’t believe it.”
She claimed her prize Tuesday at lottery headquarters and, after required federal and state tax withholdings, took home $623,579.
She plans to use her winnings to help her husband start a business.
In the Bison Bonanza digital instant game, a player can play from 50 cents to $30. After Michael won the jackpot, it restarted at $50,000 and has grown to over $114,000 as of Thursday morning.
Digital Instant games are played exclusively online on the lottery’s website or on the NC Lottery Official Mobile App. Seventy-six different games are available to play online now.
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