GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — A Gastonia man’s soda quest turned into a six-figure windfall when he added a lottery ticket to his Sunday shopping trip and won $114,614. Albert Clinton Jr. purchased a $2 Bingo Bucks Fast Play ticket at the S’Mart on Bessemer City Road while buying Shirley Temple-flavored 7-Up. “We went there to get the Shirley Temple 7-Ups,” Clinton said with a laugh. At the time of his purchase, the progressive jackpot stood at $573,070. Because Clinton bought a $2 ticket rather than a higher-priced option, he received 20% of the total jackpot. “It was an unreal feeling,” Clinton said. He claimed his prize Thursday at North Carolina Education Lottery headquarters. After required state and federal tax withholdings, he took home $82,236. Clinton said he plans to use the winnings to pay bills and celebrate the holidays with his family. “The holidays are here,” he said. Fast Play is a lottery game featuring an instantly growing jackpot that increases with every ticket sold until someone wins. As of Thursday afternoon, the jackpot had climbed to more than $495,000. The North Carolina Education Lottery raised $14.2 million for education programs in Gaston County last year, according to the lottery’s website. To stream WCNC on your phone, you need the WCNC app. Next up in 5 Example video title will go here for this video Next up in 5 Example video title will go here for this video
Meet Nacho and CoCo (aka Chicklets)! Fans cheer on the West Virginia University men’s basketball team on Nov. 4, 2025, at Hope Coliseum.
Fans cheer on the West Virginia University men’s basketball team on Nov. 4, 2025, at Hope Coliseum. Seniors saw the lowest percentage of fulfilled ticket requests in the lottery for this year’s WVU Men’s Basketball matchup against the University of Pittsburgh, with 12.5% of requests fulfilled. This reporting uses data obtained from Michael Honeywell, associate athletics director for ticket operations, showing the number of tickets requested and issued per grade for this year’s Backyard Brawl. A total of 2,961 student tickets were distributed for the game. Normally, a maximum of 2,300 tickets are distributed, but 661 tickets were added “given student demand and availability in adjacent sections,” according to Honeywell. In total, 5,857 students requested tickets for the Brawl. Of those students, 2,088 were freshmen, 1,300 were sophomores, 1,062 were juniors, 1,124 were seniors and 283 were graduate students. Sophomores saw the highest percentage of requests fulfilled, with 69.1% of ticketing requests fulfilled, accounting for 898 students. Freshmen saw the highest number of requests fulfilled at 1,354 tickets, representing 64.8% of the tickets requested. WVU Men’s Basketball’sticketing policyis a loyalty-based lottery based on a student seniority. Students begin the season with a designated amount of loyalty points and have the ability to earn or lose points, depending on their attendance at games. A student’s loyalty points dictate how many entries they receive in the ticketing lottery. If a student has zero loyalty points, they receive one entry in the lottery. If they have 10, they receive 11 entries into the lottery. Graduate students and seniors begin each season with five points, juniors with three, sophomores with two and freshmen with one. Twenty percent of loyalty points from the previous season carry over, thus increasing the likelihood of older students receiving tickets, according to section 3.5 of thebasketball ticketing policy. Loyalty points are earned based on “attendance at home basketball games, which is tracked via handheld scanners at the student entrance at the Hope Coliseum,” according to WVU’s Student Tickets website. If a student requests and is granted a ticket, but does not attend or return the ticket before tipoff, they lose two loyalty points. Of the students who received tickets, the average loyalty point total was 2.4, while the average of those who did not receive tickets was 2.5. “Again, when a lottery is implemented, loyalty points pertain to probability and are not a guarantee that a student will receive a ticket,” Honeywell said in an email to The Daily Athenaeum. To request tickets, students can visit WVUGAME.com/students. Sports Managing Editor {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Editor in Chief {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Consistency paid off for one man from Hackett, Arkansas, who won $550,000 in the Nov. 4 Natural State Jackpot (NSJ) drawing. The winning jackpot numbers were 10, 17, 18, 26, and 27. The Hackett resident claimed his prize at the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery (ASL) Claim Center on Nov. 7, according to ASL officials. Being a daily lottery player, the Hackett resident bought the winning Quick Pick ticket at Hugs and Biscuits, located at 101 S. Main St. in Hackett. Previously, he had won big on other games like Cash 3 and Cash 4, but he still had his sights set on NSJ’s $550,000 jackpot. “If diligence will win you the jackpot, he’s got it,” the winner’s wife told lottery officials. After the drawing, the Hackett man scanned his ticket and was told to visit the ASL Claim Center to collect his prize. He knew immediately he had hit the jackpot, since NSJ’s second-tier prize of $300 could be collected at the average lottery retailer. “I thought, ‘No, no… really? Oh my!” the winner said. He rushed to share the news with his wife, asking if she wanted to take a trip to Little Rock with him. Not aware of his big win, she declined, saying she had an appointment scheduled for that afternoon. She immediately changed her mind when he sent her a photo of the winning ticket. “Now is not the time to be playing games,” she said. “Are you being serious right now?” Skepticism turned into elation once she realized that he had indeed won the $550,000 jackpot, and together, the pair made their way to the ASL Claim Center. The Hackett resident plans to save some of his winnings. The jackpot for Thursday’s NSJ drawing is $90,000. To stream THV11 on your phone, you need the THV11 app. Next up in 5 Example video title will go here for this video Next up in 5 Example video title will go here for this video
Did anyone win Wednesday night’s Powerball drawing for the estimated jackpot of $512 million? The cash option for the Nov. 12 jackpot was $239.1 million. Here’s what we know about the drawing on Wednesday, Nov. 12. The winning numbers for the Nov. 12 drawing were 29, 39, 43, 51, 65 and the Powerball was 23. The Powerplay was 2X. The estimated jackpot for this drawing was $512 million with the cash option of $239.1 million. No ticket matched the numbers to win the jackpot or the Match 5 plus Power Play $2 million prize. Tickets sold in New Jersey and Virginia won the $1 million Match 5 prize. The next drawing is on Saturday, Nov. 15. The estimated jackpot for this drawing has grown to $546 million with a cash value of $255 million. Powerball drawings take place three times a week, every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. ET. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million. The Powerball is played in 45 states, including Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, and in Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. You do not have to be a U.S. citizen or U.S. resident to play Powerball. You can purchase tickets at gas stations, convenience stores and supermarkets in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Sales cut-off times vary by one to two hours before the drawing, depending on the selling jurisdiction. You can also purchase tickets in Ohio through the Ohio Lottery website, www.ohiolottery.com. A single Powerball ticket costs $2. Pay an additional $1 to add the Power Play for a chance to multiply all Powerball winnings except for the jackpot. Players can also add the Double Play for an additional $1 to have a second chance at winning $10 million. To play, select five numbers from 1 to 69 for the white balls, then select one number from 1 to 26 for the red Powerball. You can choose your lucky numbers on a play slip or let the lottery terminal randomly pick your numbers. To win, match one of the 9 Ways.
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