North Carolina man wins $2 million lottery after winning $1 million years before

(CNN) — They say lightning doesn't strike the same place twice, but a winning lottery ticket just might.

A man in North Carolina got a sizeable return on his investment when he scratched off a $20 ticket for a $2 million prize, the North Carolina Education Lottery announced Tuesday. Less than two years ago, he collected a $1 million jackpot playing a different game in the same lottery.

Pharris Frank told the lottery he was out of town for work when he bought the ticket.

"It's cool because the first time I won it was two miles from my house and this time I was four and a half hours away," he said. "What are the chances of me being down there at that exact moment in time?"

According to the lottery, the odds of winning the top prize on the $2,000,000 Diamond Dazzler game like Frank did are about one in 1.5 million.

Despite those odds, Frank predicted the win. "It's crazy because the day before I won, my buddy was asking me how it felt to win $1 million," he said. "And I told him that I was going to double it."

He opted to collect a lump sum of $855,006 after federal tax withholdings rather than take an annual $100,000 over the next 20 years, the lottery said.

After his first big win in July 2021, Frank said he spent his jackpot on a dream wedding. This time, he's planning a vacation with his wife.

The Diamond Dazzler game was launched last January. There are now two jackpot tickets remaining.