Grandma uses series of family birthdays on NC lottery ticket and wins jackpot

Grandmothers have a knack for remembering important dates, and that habit paid off big for a woman in need of a big number for the North Carolina Education Lottery.

Phyllis Costin says she used “some family birthdays and my anniversary” to come up with 4, 17, 22, 37 and 38 on a $1 Cash Five ticket.

The seemingly random series matched all five balls, beating odds of 1 in 962,598 in the Oct. 29 drawing, lottery officials said in a Nov. 3 news release.

Her prize amounted to $271,509, but Costin admits to initially thinking she was imagining things. That’s when she sought a second opinion from her daughter.

“I said, ‘Come in here, I think I won the lottery,’” Costin told lottery officials. “I couldn’t believe it.”

The grandmother of four claimed her money Monday, Nov. 3, at lottery headquarters in Raleigh, and it came to $194,816 after federal and state withholdings, officials said.

Costin didn’t say how she intends to spend it. She lives in the Bailey area, about a 35-mile drive east from Raleigh.

The ticket was purchased at Mr. S Tobacco and Grill on U.S. Route 264 in the nearby Sims community, lottery officials said.

Cash Five has a rolling jackpot that grows until someone matches all five numbers (from 1 to 43) in the daily drawings.

This story was originally published November 4, 2025 at 11:22 AM with the headline "Grandma uses series of family birthdays on NC lottery ticket and wins jackpot."