Mom and her sister competed for first prize in NC lottery game. She won — in a big way

Simone Jasper
·2 min read

Two sisters competed to see who would be the first to hit the jackpot — and one of them won big in North Carolina.

LaKisa McKethan edged out her sister, scoring a $500,000 prize in the Bigger $pin game. Prize winners get a chance to spin a game-show style wheel to find out how much they won, according to the N.C. Education Lottery.

“When the Bigger $pin ticket came out, me and my sister used to try to compete with each other to see who could get the wheel,” McKethan told officials while laughing. “So, when I got the wheel I took a picture of it and I showed it to her.”

Though McKethan was hoping to be victorious over her sister, she said another family member was instrumental in helping her take home the extra cash.

“McKethan credits her young son for her good fortune,” officials said in a Jan. 17 news release. “She said he told her he prayed for her to win a million dollars so she wouldn’t have to worry about money.”

The North Carolina mom fell short of that goal but still won enough to keep $354,994 after taxes. Officials said the big windfall came after she got off her job as a third-shift factory worker and stopped at the VA VA Food Mart in Fayetteville to buy a $10 scratch-off.

“I was gonna wait, but I always knew the early bird gets the worm,” McKethan said in the lottery’s news release. “I was like ‘whoa’ and I was in shock.”

McKethan had the chance to spin the lottery’s wheel on Jan. 19 and landed on a spot that scored her $500,000. After getting the six-figure win, she plans to spend money on a house and help someone who needs medical care, officials said.

It’s not the first time a winner has gotten a chance to try out the lottery’s prize wheel. In November, a Vietnam veteran and a Durham cook won prizes that together totaled more than $1 million, McClatchy News reported.

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest Stories

  • WABC Radio suspends Rudy Giuliani for flouting ban on discussing discredited 2020 election claims

    NEW YORK (AP) — Rudy Giuliani was suspended Friday from WABC Radio and his daily show canceled over what the station called his repeated violation of a ban on discussing discredited 2020 election claims. Giuliani said the station's ban is overly broad and “a clear violation of free speech.” Giuliani issued a statement saying he had heard of WABC Radio owner John Catsimatidis' decision through “a leak” to The New York Times. Catsimatidis confirmed his decision in a text message to The Associated

  • Luminate Streaming Ratings: ‘The Idea of You’ Rises to No. 1 Spot on the Movies Chart for May 3-9

    “The Idea of You” was the most-streamed movie of the May 3-9 viewing window, per Luminate. The movie, starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine, was watched for 714.2 million minutes between May and May 9, its first full week of availability on Amazon Prime Video. Up from its No. 5 position on last week’s chart, …

  • ‘Stunning’ Northern Lights spotted across the UK

    The Aurora Borealis has been spotted in Whitley Bay on the north east coast, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Wokingham in Berkshire.

  • US says Israel may have breached international law with American weapons in Gaza

    Report says it is "reasonable to assess" there have been breaches in Gaza, but admits it does not have "complete information".

  • Kylian Mbappe finally confirms PSG departure and set to sign for Real Madrid

    Striker will play his final game at Parc des Princes on Sunday before completing an expected move to the Spanish champions

  • Sean Burroughs, former MLB player, Little League World Series and Olympic champion, dies at 43

    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sean Burroughs, a two-time Little League World Series champion who won an Olympic gold medal and went on to a major league career that was interrupted by substance abuse, has died. He was 43. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s online records said Burroughs died Thursday, with the cause of death deferred. USA Today, citing unnamed sources, reported Burroughs died at Stearns Champions Park in Long Beach, California, where he grew up. The Long Beach Fire Department respond

  • Jaw-Dropping Aurora Borealis Illuminate the Northern Sky Amid Solar Storm

    Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty ImagesAs night descended across the Earth on Friday, a solar storm suffused the skies with a gorgeous display of aurora borealis, and well, it was jaw-dropping.For the first time in 20 years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a watch for a “very rare” severe geomagnetic storm, which was upgraded to an extreme G5 storm later on Friday. This is the first G5 storm since 2003, and could effect the power grid, as well as radio communications

  • STF resoundingly rejects government ‘Final Offer’

    The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) voted overwhelming against the government’s ‘Final Offer’ over May 8-9. In results announced Thursday evening with 92.2 percent of Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation members casting a vote over the two-day period and 90 per cent of those voting against the offer. “This vote is a clear demonstration of the high level of engagement of teachers throughout this entire process, and also shows the results that they have to fight for their students and for pub

  • Home run resurgence sends Wichita State softball back to AAC tournament title game

    The Shockers will host the AAC tournament championship game against Charlotte at 11 a.m. at Wilkins Stadium.

  • MBARI debuts new interactive mobile game

    MBARI debuts new interactive mobile game

  • ’28 Years Later’ Gets June 2025 Release Date

    Danny Boyle’s “28 Years Later” is hitting the big screen next summer. Sony Pictures has slated the long-awaited project for June 20, 2025. Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes are set to star in the sequel to “28 Days Later” and “28 Weeks Later.” Plot details are still being kept under wraps for the new screenplay, written by …

  • New York judge strikes down Nassau County trans sports ban

    NEW YORK — A state judge on Friday evening struck down Nassau County’s controversial sports ban on transgender women and girls, finding that the county’s Republican executive had acted beyond his authority in enacting the ban. The decision, issued in Nassau Supreme Court by Justice Francis Ricigliano, delivers a significant victory to the New York Civil Liberties Union, which had sued the ...

  • Brock Bowers: Michael Mayer and I will be 'difficult for defensive personnel' to contain

    Las Vegas Raiders Brock Bowers: Tight end Michael Mayer and I will be 'difficult for defensive personnel' to contain.

  • Ukraine ground force commander expects Russian push ahead of arms supplies

    "Russia knows that if we receive enough weapons within a month or two, the situation could turn against them," General Oleskander Pavliuk told The Economist magazine. Supplies of U.S. weapons slowed for months while an aid package proposed by President Joe Biden was held up by wrangling in Congress. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that Ukraine still needed "timely" future supplies of key weapons.

  • Hulu Comedy Head Billy Rosenberg Exits Streamer, Where He Developed ‘Only Murders in the Building’

    Hulu comedy head Billy Rosenberg is exiting the streamer after more than seven years. Rosenberg, who most recently served as senior VP of comedy for Hulu Originals, has not yet been replaced. Rosenberg’s tenure at Hulu came with the elevation of the streamer’s comedy brand, as he developed hits including “Pen15,” “Ramy,” “Only Murders In …

  • A Folsom athlete rows her way to 2024 Summer Olympics

    Sechser is a two-time Olympic rower in lightweight double sculls. The 2024 games will be her final Olympic games.

  • Feds hold meeting to tackle ballooning immigration amid housing crisis

    Immigration Minister Marc Miller met with his provincial and territorial counterparts on Friday, to discuss ways to tackle the country’s ballooning immigration numbers. The federal government has already taken the step of slashing the number of temporary foreign visas by 600,000 as it tries to figure out the country’s housing shortage at the same time. Mackenzie Gray reports.

  • Sony Sets Summer 2025 Release For Danny Boyle’s ’28 Years Later’

    Mark your calendar for June 20, 2025 as that’s when the next installment in Danny Boyle’s 28 franchise hits theaters, 28 Years Later. Boyle returns to direct off a screenplay by Alex Garland. Boyle and Garland are also producing, as is original producer Andrew Macdonald and Peter Rice. Bernie Bellew is also producing. Cillian Murphy …

  • David Banner talks 'Finding Tony' film amid women's basketball popularity

    Actor and rapper David Banner stars in the new film “Finding Tony” along with Stephen Bishop and Raquel Justice. The movie follows a depressed, alcoholic former NBA star who begins coaching a high school girls basketball team and forms a strong bond with an orphaned player. (May 10) (AP Production by Gary Gerard Hamilton)

  • Western Caucus holds Rural Broadband hearing in Bakersfield

    Western Caucus holds Rural Broadband hearing in Bakersfield