Some say that having a good friend is like winning the jackpot. So, what does it mean when you have a good, lifelong friend and you win the jackpot?
Well, for two North Carolina residents and friends of 35 years, it means that they both get to walk away with some big bucks, after one shared his lottery winnings with the other.
Charles won a $361,527 Fast Play jackpot. He'd purchased a ticket from the Mast Food Mart on Old U.S. 64 East in Lexington for $5, which would've entitled him to half of the $723,054 jackpot that was in play.
In recalling his purchase of the ticket, Charles said, "I'd just gotten off of work. I looked at the amount you could win and thought to myself, 'Man, I want this!'"
The two had made a promise decades ago, that if either of them were to win a large sum of money from the lottery, they'd split the winnings with the other.
He said, “I was lost for words. I was kind of in shock too because to me that’s a lot of money to win. And I know that anything he says is just the truth. So, I knew when he told me that he wasn’t pulling my leg."
"He’s what you call a true friend," Edwards continued. "Kinda like family."
I think after knowing each other for that long, you pretty much are family.
Edwards said, "He was my boss!" Charles added, "We always talked about if we would hit something big, it didn’t matter if we went in together to get the ticket or if we got it separate, we were gonna share it with each other."
The pair both hope to pay off some bills with the money the won from the Fast Play jackpot, which is run by the North Carolina Education Lottery.
After federal and state tax withholdings, they walked away with $128,361. Not before snapping a pic with their giant check, of course.
Every ticket sold just adds to the jackpot. Just a few short days after Charles and Edwards won, the jackpot made its way up to $398,188.
They write that the proceeds from scratch-off games help them to raise over $900 million for education-related use. Here's hoping someone else will be just as lucky as these two friends!
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