Lotto luck: North Carolina man hits it big twice in less than two years

Lucky lightning struck twice for one North Carolina man last week. In 2021, he won $1 million in the state lottery. Less than two years later, he won again, this time a $2 million payoff off a $20 Diamond Dazzler scratch-off ticket.

Winner Pharris Frank said he had a premonition of his impending lotto luck.

“It’s crazy because the day before I won, my buddy was asking me how it felt to win $1 million. And I told him that I was going to double it,” Mr. Frank recalled in a release from the North Carolina Education Lottery.

Mr. Frank also understands the magnitude of his fortune. His 2021 winning ticket was purchased just two miles from his home in Advance, North Carolina, whereas the Diamond Dazzler ticket was purchased four and a half hours away in Morehead City, North Carolina.

“What are the chances of me being down there at that exact moment in time?” Mr. Frank asked rhetorically.

The lottery has an answer — only one in every 1,528,470 Diamond Dazzler tickets is a maximum winning $2 million ticket, with six such tickets being issued when it launched in January 2022. Of those, two have yet to be claimed.

Mr. Frank chose the lump sum option, taking $1.2 million. After tax, his winnings come out to $855,006. 

With his 2021 winnings going toward his wedding, Mr. Frank indicated that this win would help fund a vacation with his wife.