A woman in North Carolina, USA, had a stroke of luck when she decided to buy a Powerball lottery ticket on a whim and ended up winning a whopping $2 million. Her plan is to help others by donating to charitable organizations.
The North Carolina Education Lottery announced in a press release on January 6th that the woman, named Pegi Campbell, resides in Gaston County.
Campbell purchased a Powerball ticket for $3 at a supermarket last month and participated in the draw on December 13th. Her chosen five white ball numbers matched the winning numbers, earning her $1 million. Since she had chosen the Power Play option, her prize was doubled to $2 million.
Originally, Campbell hadn’t intended to buy a lottery ticket. She said, “I bought it on a whim.”
On January 5th, she went to the lottery company to claim her prize. After taxes, she was able to collect a total amount of $1,440,201 at once.
She exclaimed, “Wow, that’s a lot of money!”
Campbell mentioned that she intends to donate the prize money to local charities and domestic violence shelters to help others. “I will make sure this money is put to good use. We can help many people with this.”
The Powerball lottery is operated by the Multi-State Lottery Association and is played across 45 states in the US, as well as in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands of the United States. Drawings occur every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday evenings. If there are no jackpot winners, the prize money continues to accumulate.
Previously, on Christmas Eve of last year (December 24th), a single ticket sold in Arkansas matched all six Powerball numbers (including five white balls and one red ball), entitling the ticket holder to a record-breaking jackpot of $18.17 billion. This was the second-largest lottery prize in US history and the biggest Powerball jackpot of 2025.
Before the jackpot was won in Arkansas this time, there had been 47 consecutive draws without a winner, setting a new record for the longest jackpot cycle for the lottery, leading to such a huge prize pool accumulation.