‘Holiday tradition’ of playing scratch-off tickets nets big lottery win for NC family
A family in North Carolina that plays the lottery every holiday season took home a big win just before New Year’s Eve, according to lottery officials.
Joshua Brackett, a plumber in Stanley, won $100,000 with a Holiday Countdown scratch-off ticket, the N.C. Education Lottery said in a news release Friday. After taxes, Brackett took home $70,756 from lottery headquarters in Raleigh.
The town of Stanley is in Gaston County northwest of Charlotte.
Scratching off lottery tickets is a holiday tradition for Brackett’s family, he told officials. This year, Bracket, his mother and brother were all “sitting around the kitchen table” with their tickets when he realized he’d won.
“I just picked my mom up and hugged her,” Brackett said. “That’s all I could do at that time.”
Brackett bought two scratch-off tickets for $20 each at the Kingsway on Chapel Grove School Road. He had a 1-in-600,000 chance of winning the second-largest prize in the Holiday Countdown Game, which had a top prize of $1 million, according to the Education Lottery.
Brackett said he plans to buy a new truck with the money he won and save what’s left to help care for his new son, who is due in February.
“This is a boost for me. I’m happy and overjoyed,” he said.
The Holiday Countdown scratch-off series started in November with three top prizes of $1 million and two prizes of $100,000 — all of which have now been claimed, according to officials. Several $10,000 and $5,000 prizes remain.
