Woman Wins $626K Days Before 40th Birthday, Husband Didn’t Believe Her

A North Carolina woman rang in her 40th birthday last week with an extra special surprise: a $626,543 lottery jackpot win.

Chelsea Carter, a house cleaner from Ocean Isle Beach, won the massive prize from the state’s Monopoly digital instants game on Wednesday, Sept. 10, and collected her prize two days later, lottery officials announced in a statement.

“This is insane,” Carter told the officials. “I’ve cried, I’ve laughed, it’s surreal.”

She spent $10 to play the game, which features a progressive jackpot available to win at any moment. Her luck struck around 2 a.m. local time, when she hit the jackpot and rushed to tell her husband, which he couldn’t quite believe was actually real at first.

“I was in shock,” Carter said. “I started shaking my husband telling him to wake up. I go ‘I just won $626,000,’ and he laughed and closed his eyes.”

She claimed the prize from state lottery headquarters on her birthday, taking home $449,548 after taxes.

“This the best birthday present ever,” Carter said to lottery officials. “I want to turn 40 every year if this is going to happen.”

She plans to invest some of her winnings, buy land and create a safety net for her three children.

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“It’s a blessing,” Carter said. “Every day people can win something like this, and we did.”

The odds of winning the game’s jackpot, called the Grand Fortune, on a $10 play are about 1 in 5 million, according to state lottery officials.

If you or someone you know is struggling with a gambling problem, please contact the National Problem Gambling Helpline Network at 1-800-522-4700 or go to gamtalk.org.