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A man in North Carolina is celebrating a "surreal" lottery win days after another ticket he purchased narrowly missed the jackpot by one number.
Joshua Allen, of Raleigh, recently purchased a Cash 5 ticket but ultimately didn't win after only matching four of the five numbers in the drawing, according to a release from the NC Education Lottery. However, he didn't let that stop him from purchasing another ticket using Online Play, playing the Cash 5 game that his grandfather enjoyed playing.
"It was always his favorite game over the years so I decided to play it because he did," he said.
Lucky for Allen he did play because his lucky ticket landed him the $662,878 jackpot after matching all the numbers on all five balls to beat the 1 in 962,598 odds.
"It was surreal," he said of his win.
Allen claimed his prize at lottery headquarters last week, taking home a total of $472,303 after all required state and federal tax withholdings. Like many other lottery winners before him, he already has big plans on how to spend his win.
"I can use this money to put a down payment on a house," he told lottery officials.
In additional to a new house, Allen said he plans to use some of the prize to help him pay student loans.