Thousands split thousands in NC lottery drawing. Here’s how it happened — again.

Several thousand players won a prize in a North Carolina lottery drawing on Friday night, officials said.

Their big wins came when the Red Ball popped up in the Carolina Pick 3 game.

When the Red Ball emerges, players get two chances to win.

It’s called Double Draw when that happens, and Double Draw is guaranteed to occur once every seven days, according to the lottery.

In Friday night’s first chance drawing, 1,830 tickets won a total of $296,063 in cash prizes when the numbers 4-5-7 were drawn.

In the second chance drawing, the Double Draw, 2,024 tickets won a total of $216,125 in cash prizes with the numbers 7-4-0.

The key is the Red Ball, which has led to quite a few other big wins.

In a March drawing, for instance, thousands of players won a total of $726,317 after the Red Ball was drawn — the seventh time it happened to that point, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time.

Because the Red Ball was drawn, the Double Draw machine was reset, officials said. Saturday night’s drawing was set to have six white balls and one red, according to the lottery.

Players who match the numbers exactly win $500 on a $1 ticket and $250 on a 50-cent ticket, according to the Pick 3 website. The odds of winning a top prize are 1 in 1,000, according to the site.