Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

RALEIGH – For Patti Pinkston of Canton, a $100,000 Powerball prize will help pay for her children’s education.

“I have 17-year-old twins and this is going in the college fund,” she said of her plans for the prize money.

Pinkston purchased her winning Quick Pick ticket for the Jan. 9 drawing using Online Play on the NC Lottery Official Mobile App.

Her winning Power Play ticket matched numbers on four of the white balls and the Powerball to beat odds of 1 in 913,000, winning her $50,000. Her prize doubled to $100,000 when the 2X multiplier was drawn.

Pinkston claimed her prize Wednesday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh and took home $70,751 after required federal and state tax withholdings.

The jackpot stands at $750 million as an annuity prize or $546 million cash for Wednesday’s drawing. The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292 million.

Players can try their luck and buy Powerball tickets at any lottery retail location, through Online Play on the lottery’s website, www.nclottery.com, or by using the NC Lottery Official Mobile App.

Ticket sales from draw games like Powerball make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $725 million per year for education. For details on how lottery funds have helped all of North Carolina’s 100 counties, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website.