I won a $1million lottery ticket – but I didn’t even take home half the winnings

A WOMAN in North Carolina has won the lottery, but she’s not taking home nearly as much money as her ticket suggests.

The woman took home just under $430,000 from the lucky Millionaire Maker ticket.

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Still, the woman was happy about her winnings when asked about it by WYFF4.

“I thought I was going to faint,” said Eunice Brown upon finding out she’d won.

“I felt really numb.

“My son said, ‘I don’t mean disrespect, but you’re lying'”

Brown originally bought the winning ticket for $30.

Winning Millionaire Maker tickets are worth $1 million.

She had two payment options — a $50,000 annuity paid over 20 years or a $600,000 lump sum.

Brown opted for the lump sum payment—after taxes, she received $427,509.

Brown told the site she would use the money to pay bills and share with other family members.

WHY WINNERS TAKE HOME LESS

Lottery winners often take home less money than advertised.

Winning tickets have multiple forms of payment and are subject to high taxes.

Winners who opted for lump sum payments, like Queens’ Maojun Cheng, typically take home a fraction of the winnings.

Cheng received $6,122,400 for a $10 million winning ticket.

BIG WINNERS

Some winners have made a list of problems they encounter after receiving their winnings.

Sandra Hayes shared a $224 million Powerball jackpot in 2006 and said people around her started behaving differently.

I had to endure people’s greed and need and I was trying to get them to give them your money,” Hayes said of her experience.

“It caused a lot of emotional pain.”

Other winners, such as Danny Chasteen and his girlfriend Susan Rick, had to sue the issuing parties to receive their winnings.

Chasteen had to wait years to get his $250,000 from the state of Illinois because the state left his check in limbo during the 2015 budget negotiations.

The US Sun reports on other lottery tickets – here’s a $1.5 million payout that no one has claimed.

Also, a former lottery winner talks about how he spent his newfound money after winning.