Lottery player who won $30K in SC was 1 number away from much bigger prize. ‘So close’

A woman who won $30,000 in the lottery was just one number away from hitting the jackpot, according to the South Carolina Education Lottery.

Her ticket matched four of the first five numbers in the Mega Millions drawing and a “gold Megaball” number, lottery officials said in a news release. The odds of this match were one in 931,001.

The Upstate woman needed just one more number to match in order to win the $830 million jackpot on July 26.

But, she said she was still happy with her $30,000 win.

“It was breathtaking,” she said, according to the lottery. “But there was a moment of ‘Dang, I was so close.’”

She told lottery officials that she doesn’t play often and never expected she’d win.

“This is great,” she said.

The woman purchased her ticket at a Power Trac convenience store in Westminster, according to the lottery. The store received a commission for “selling the claimed ticket.”

Westminster is about 160 miles northwest of Columbia.

The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot, which is now estimated to be $231 million, are one in 303 million.

This story was originally published September 14, 2022 at 11:33 AM with the headline "Lottery player who won $30K in SC was 1 number away from much bigger prize. ‘So close’."