Family’s Birthday Numbers Bring NC Woman $200K Powerball Win
From selecting lucky numbers passed down through generations to specific playing schedules. Some lottery players develop ritualistic and routine ways to play the game. Just recently, a North Carolina resident achieved exactly that. Playing Powerball with her family members’ birth dates as numbers, she managed to secure a $200,000 prize.
Playing the same numbers for over two decades, Tamara Laughinghouse from Mooresville, North Carolina, experienced a life-changing moment while on a family trip to Wyoming.
“I was sitting in my parents’ house having coffee with my dad when he started reading the winning numbers,” Laughinghouse said in a news release. “I asked him to please reread the numbers.”
The winning combination.
The numbers she had been using for years turned out to be the winning combination, earning her a major prize. “I’ve been playing those same numbers for over 20 years,” Laughinghouse said. “They are the different birthdays in my family.”
Laughinghouse purchased the victorious $3 ticket from a Food Lion in Mooresville. On the ticket were the matching four of the five white balls and the red Powerball in the July 17 drawing. The 4x multiplier boosted her total winnings to $200,000, out of which she took home $142,501 after taxes. She claimed her prize Thursday in Raleigh.
According to a news release, with her newfound fortune Laughinghouse intends to travel to Italy with her husband. “I always wanted to go see the area where he was from,” she said. “My husband and I might go now.”
In addition to a trip to Italy, she plans to make a charitable donation to her former high school’s scholarship fund and save the rest for the future.
In North Carolina, players can participate in Powerball, one of six lottery games, either by purchasing tickets at retail locations or opting for Online Play through the lottery’s website or the NC Lottery Official Mobile App.
Watch the video here, where Laughinghouse talks about her exciting win.