Raleigh grandmother kept pinching herself after $728,048 jackpot win

Vickie Koch of Raleigh assumed she had to be dreaming after she won a $728,048 jackpot early Wednesday morning playing a digital instant game.

“I kept pinching myself thinking I would wake up,” she laughed. “I thought I was asleep, I really did.”

Koch said she enjoys playing digital instant games late at night before going to sleep as it relaxes her. As she sat in her living room playing Bison Bonanza, a digital instant game featuring a progressive jackpot that can be won at any time, she suddenly realized she hit the jackpot.

“I was just sitting there, like I was numb,” she recalled. “This is just such a huge blessing.”

The $728,048 jackpot represents the second biggest digital instant win since the lottery began offering digital instant games in November. Koch played a $2 ticket and won the top level ‘Epic jackpot.’ The odds of that win are 1 in 15.5 million.

“The first thing I was thinking was, ‘What can I do to help my family,’” Koch said. “I want to use this to set up an education trust for my grandchildren’s college.”

Koch claimed her prize at lottery headquarters and, after required federal and state tax withholdings, she took home $520,555.

In addition to helping her family, Koch said she wants to take a girl’s trip to “somewhere tropical.”

In the Bison Bonanza digital instant game, a player can play from 50 cents to $30. After Koch won the jackpot, it restarted at $50,000 and is now over $112,000 as of Friday morning.

Digital instant games are played exclusively online on the lottery’s website or on the NC Lottery Official Mobile App. Twenty-two different games are available to play online now.