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You have to spend money to make money. That's how one man in North Carolina describes how he plays the lottery and how he ended up winning a massive $1 million prize.
"People ask me why I keep playing and I tell them, 'scared money don't make money,'" said James Perkins.
The 53-year-old Elizabethtown man who is "in it to win it" recently tried his luck once again at the state lottery, picking up a $30 scratch-off ticket for the Millionaire Maker game from the Community Mart on East Broad Street, according to a release from the NC Education Lottery.
Perkins waited until he returned home to scratch off his ticket, but when he did he couldn't believe just how lucky he was to score the $1 million prize. Hoping he wasn't seeing things, he ended up calling his wife to check the ticket. Based off her reaction, he realized he truly did win big.
"She started hollering so I figured I must have been right," he recalled.
Perkins claimed his prize at lottery headquarters, choosing to receive his prize either as an annuity of $50,000 per year over the course of 20 years or as a one time, lump sum payment of $600,000. In the end, he chose the latter, bringing home a total of $426,069 after all required state and federal tax withholdings. When asked what he plans to do with his new massive prize, he told lottery officials he wants to set some of his winnings aside for his children's education.
According to lottery officials, Perkins is the 30th person to win one of the top $1 million prizes in the Millionaire Maker game since it launched in March 2021.