CANDLER — James Rice of Candler in Buncombe County matched five white balls but not the Mega Ball in the Aug. 17 Mega Millions drawing and won $250,000, according to the N.C. Education Lottery. The ticket was purchased at the Energy Mart Store on Long Shoals Road in Arden. “It was a great blessing, for sure,” Rice said of his win. He plans to use his winnings, worth $170,000 after taxes, to pay off bills.

A MELBOURNE mother has won more than $1.4 million in Tattslotto after mistakenly buying two tickets for last Saturday's draw, taking out two division one prizes. In a stroke of luck, the woman, who chooses her numbers by her children's birthdays, bought an extra ticket - doubling her winnings. "I thought my ticket had expired so I bought another one and accidentally doubled up in the weekend's draw," the woman said. Each ticket won $742,311.37 which brings her winnings to $1,484,622.74.

Morro Bay liquor store to get $665,000 commission A $133 million lottery jackpot is more than the stuff of daydreams for one customer of a Morro Bay, California, liquor store. Bottle Liquor and Deli at 999 Main St. in Morro Bay sold the winning Mega Millions lottery ticket, the only jackpot winner in Friday's 41-state drawing, according to the California Lottery.

Two men won $1 million from New York Lottery scratch-off tickets purchased at separate locations in Greece, four days apart. What are the chances of that? Well, you never know. “We have our newest million-dollar winners,” said Gretchen Dizer of the New York Lottery. “Both winners purchased their tickets in Greece at different locations and claimed them within two days of each other.” For the next 20 years, the men each will receive $50,000 ($33,015 after taxes) from the lottery.

Linda Hebert says she didn't think twice when she purchased two nearly identical computer-generated "Fast Play" tickets at North End Deli Mart earlier this month. "They looked like winners to me," Hebert says of the twin "Red Hot Numbers" tickets that she has been patiently waiting for the Vermont Lottery Commission to honor since she bought them on her way to work Aug. 4. Turns out Hebert's double win was not due to lady luck but a computer malfunction — and she wasn't alone in "winning" that day.

A couple told of their shock at winning £7.7m in the UK National Lotto rollover jackpot, and how they had gone to a pub to celebrate before realising that neither of them had any money to buy a drink. Susan Westbury, from Nottingham, said she "just went to pieces" after learning of the win by herself and her husband, Ivan, when she stopped at her local Tesco on Sunday morning on the way back from the gym. "I handed over my ticket to be scanned by the young lad behind the counter but something seemed wrong and I asked if the machine was broke," she said. "He then handed a pink slip of paper that the machine had printed out to his manager and they had a chat about what it meant. The pink slip said I had to call Camelot and they came to the conclusion that I must have won a fairly large prize."

Imagine the surprise to open your mail and find a lottery ticket worth thousands of dollars. It happened in one Kansas county this month and now the hospital in Beloit is all the richer for it. Hospitals in small communities such as the one in Mitchell County are a big deal. That's why, when Susan Concannon opened up an anonymous letter a few weeks ago, she was completely overjoyed. "$10,000!!!" Concannon exclaimed as she showed us the celebratory check from the Kansas Lottery.

China's national lottery "Bicolor Balls" No. 2010092, held on Aug. 10 had 55 first-prize-winning tickets, of which 50 were bought by the same person in Shanghai. The biggest lottery winner spent only 200 yuan buying 250 tickets with 5 different groups of numbers, and it turned out that 50 were first-prize-winning tickets, each worth more than 5 million yuan, and 50 are second prize-winning tickets, each worth 120,000 yuan, indicating that the winner won 259 million yuan in total.

A Lincolnton man got an early birthday present when he won the “Carolina Cash 5” lottery drawing on Wednesday. Bobby Turner Jr. was stunned when he realized that his quick-pick ticket matched all five numbers in the drawing and won the $566,885 top prize.

"Million Little Mistakes", by Heather McElhatton: Plenty of Gen-Xers remember the Choose Your Own Adventure books from their childhood. McElhatton updated the format for adults with 2007's "Pretty Little Mistakes." That novel started with high school graduation and asked if you wanted to go to college or take time off and travel. Given that the story lines run through death (and sometimes the thereafter), it was hard to imagine a follow-up. But McElhatton rose to the challenge brilliantly, posing the question that most of us have asked ourselves at one time or another: What if I won the lottery? In "Million Little Mistakes," you start by winning $22 million. The first choice — do you quit your job or not — is followed by many of the other questions commonly confronted by real lottery winners: Do you give money to your family? Do you break up with your boyfriend? (You are a woman in "Million Little Mistakes," even if you are a man in real life.) Depending on the answers to those and subsequent questions, you can end up happily married or brokenhearted, wealthy or just broke. You can kill or be killed.