Powerball player reads about big win — and discovers she has the lucky ticket
A Powerball player read about a big win in a North Carolina newspaper — and discovered she had the lucky ticket.
“We have never won anything like this before,” Megan Sikora-Stypolkowski told the North Carolina Education Lottery in a May 5 news release.
Sikora-Stypolkowski scored the $150,000 prize after she played Powerball online. She was in the Raleigh suburb of Wake Forest when she spent $3 on a Quick Pick ticket, meaning the lottery chose her numbers at random.
It turns out, her ticket matched all but one number picked in the April 21 drawing, just missing the jackpot. Since she spent an extra dollar on the Power Play option, her $50,000 prize tripled to $150,000, McClatchy News reported.
When the lucky player was searching for the drawing results online, she stumbled upon The News & Observer’s story about an unclaimed Powerball ticket.
“I was with my coworker at the time and I said, ‘Wouldn’t that be funny if it was me,’” said Sikora-Stypolkowski, who lives in Raleigh.
Her prize was no joke, and she kept $107,626 after taxes. The big winner now plans to go on a trip with her family, according to lottery officials.
What to know about Powerball
To score the jackpot in the Powerball, a player must match all five white balls and the red Powerball.
The odds of scoring the jackpot prize are 1 in 292,201,338.
Tickets can be bought on the day of the drawing, but sales times and price vary by state.
Drawings are broadcast Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays at 10:59 p.m. ET and can be streamed online.
Powerball is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
This story was originally published May 6, 2025 at 8:17 AM with the headline "Powerball player reads about big win — and discovers she has the lucky ticket."
