Man wins jackpot cash with NC lottery ticket he didn’t really want to buy

Lottery players have their favorite games, but occasionally desperate alternative choices must be made.

That happened to Randy Suthard of Buncombe County, North Carolina, and it actually proved to be lucky.

He opted to get a $5 Red Hot Slots ticket and it was worth $200,000, the N.C. Education Lottery said in a Jan. 23 news release.

“They were actually sold out of my first choice,” he told lottery officials, “so I got that one instead.”

Suthard beat odds of 1 in 1,461,660 to win a jackpot. The scratch-off game relies on matching symbols rather than numbers, like an old fashioned slot machine.

Initially, Suthard wasn’t exactly sure how to read the ticket.

“At first I thought it said $2,000. ... Then I looked harder and realized, ‘That’s the big daddy,’” he said. “It was kind of unreal to be honest.”

Suthard picked up his winnings Thursday, Jan. 23, at lottery headquarters in Raleigh, and the prize came to $143,501 after state and federal with holdings, the lottery officials said.

He intends to use some of it to pay bills “and put some money toward his retirement.”

The ticket was purchased at the Hot Spot convenience store on Brevard Road in Asheville, about a 130-mile drive northwest from Charlotte.

This story was originally published January 24, 2025 at 5:29 AM with the headline "Man wins jackpot cash with NC lottery ticket he didn’t really want to buy."