North Carolina winner to use $200,000 prize helping the homeless

Barry Shipp from Charlotte says he only buys lottery tickets once in a blue moon, but when he recently purchased a $5 Pot of Gold ticket from the Kangaroo Express on East WT Harris Boulevard in Charlotte, he won a $200,000 jackpot. He fully intends to use his prize money for a good cause.

In an interview with the North Carolina Lottery, Barry said:

I started a nonprofit called Pivot Point where I help build shelters for the homeless. I can really put this win to good use.

When Barry first scratched off his Pot of Gold ticket, he thought he had misread it:

I saw a zero and another zero and another and I said, “Wait a minute, this can't be right.”

But he read it just right. He went to the lottery headquarters to collect his prize and took home a cash amount of $143,001 after tax withholdings.

“This is just a day in paradise,” Barry said. As well as helping the homeless, he intends to use his prize money to pay off some bills.

How to play the Pot of Gold instant-win game

Pot of Gold is a $5 scratch-off game that debuted in December 2024. It has a top prize of $200,000. To date, two jackpot prizes remain. To play Pot of Gold, scratch off the four wads of cash symbols to reveal the winning numbers. Next, scratch off the sixteen dollar symbols to reveal your numbers. If any of your numbers match the winning numbers, you win the prize amount shown next to that number. If you reveal a gold bar symbol, you win double the prize amount shown. If you reveal a $50 burst symbol, you win $50 instantly. Scratch off the bonus area, and if you reveal a bankroll symbol, you win $50 instantly. The prize range for this game is $5, $10, $20, $30, $50, $100, $200, $500, $1,000, $10,000, $200,000.

North Carolina Lucke-Rewards

Don't forget to enter your eligible non-winning tickets into Lucke-Rewards to earn points, which you can use to enter drawings for cash and other prizes. You can enter your tickets by logging into your account and entering the Lucke-Rewards code or barcode on your instant-win tickets. You can also scan them into the app on your smartphone for quicker results. Your points will show up immediately in your account. You can also earn points by participating in fun activities like answering a quick survey or playing a game. Once you've racked up enough points, you can use them to enter the latest Lucke-Rewards weekly, monthly, and specialty drawings. You can enter any of the Multiply The Cash instant-win game tickets into Lucke-Rewards second chance. Drawings will take place on April 03, 2024, June 05, 2024, October 09, 2024, and February 05, 2025.