Woman Wins Lottery Twice, Bagging $2 Million A Mere 2 Months After Taking Home $1 Million

Jan 10, 2023

They say lightning never strikes twice, but you might have to take that with a grain of salt from now on after one North Carolina woman won the lottery, not once, but twice, in just a matter of months.

Kenya Sloan, then a 40-year-old manager of a McDonald’s outlet in Shelby, hit the jackpot on her first try with a scratch-off NC Education Lottery ticket bought from the Curve View Express on West Warren Street in August 2022. Her winnings? A cool $1 million.

“My eyes got real big,” Sloan told the Shelby Star about the huge win. “I just sat there looking at it.” What made it even more unbelievable was the fact she had never tried her luck with such a ticket before. “I saw the little money bag and I thought I maybe won $20,” Sloan said, adding, “I was just stunned.”

With the windfall, Sloan said she would be able to realize a dream she had had for a long time – owning her own property.

“I’ve been wanting to buy a house for like 15 years,” Sloan revealed. 

Upon arriving at the headquarters of the lottery company, Sloan had to decide whether to take her winnings in a lump sum or have them distributed monthly. If she went with the latter, she would receive the winnings in $50,000 tranches over 20 years. However, if she decided to take it all as a lump sum, she would get $600,000. Sloan went with the latter, and after paying federal taxes to the tune of $173,937, she went home with a neat $426,063. 

But this wasn’t the last time Lady Luck would smile down on Sloan.

Two months after her unexpected gains, Sloan tried her luck at the lottery again, buying a $20 Diamond Dazzler ticket from the same NC Education Lottery with a jackpot of $2 million at an Esha Food Mart in Shelby. Lo and behold, Sloan came out tops again.

“I was like, ‘No way this happened again,’” Sloan said, according to WBTV. “But it did.”

She added she could hardly believe her good fortune, saying, “I was just standing there in shock.” 

However, Sloan said she is just grateful for the surprising turn of events. “I just feel blessed. That’s all I can say.” 

Again, Sloan arrived at the lottery headquarters to choose between taking home a lump sum or staggered payouts. She chose the former and received $1.2 million, which came up to $855,006 after taxes were deducted.

Sloan, who had bought a parcel of land with her first winnings and was almost done building a home on it, said she would look into fulfilling another dream of hers with her second stroke of luck. She told the NC Education Lottery she planned to open her very own soul food restaurant with her winnings.

The NC Education Lottery uses sales from its scratch-off tickets to raise over $2.5 million a day on average for education. Funds raised by the lottery were utilized by the state to bestow $28.5 million in grants for the construction of schools in Cleveland County.

While we still can’t quite believe Sloan’s two lucky breaks, we’re happy that she will be able to make all her dreams come true with the winnings. Perhaps she should, however, try her luck with another ticket just one more time? You never know, but they do say the third time’s a charm!

What do you think of Sloan’s good fortune? Have you ever tried your luck with scratch-off lottery tickets? What would you do with the winnings? Let us know, and be sure to pass this along to friends and family, too.