North Carolina man wins $344.6 million Powerball jackpot

North Carolina lottery officials have confirmed that one lucky ticket holder has scooped the Powerball jackpot of $344.6 million.

The winner has been identified as a Cumberland County man, Charles W. Jackson Jr. who has elected to take an after-tax lump sum payment of $223 million.

"I never expected to win, so I just got lucky," Jackson said during a news conference.

"I didn't know it until this morning. I didn't see the last digit — I thought I had just won $50,000," Jackson said.

"You play to win — but you don't ever expect to win," he said.  "It still hasn't come over me yet how much — all that money."

Jackson, who is retired initially thought he had just won $50,000, he had to look more than once before realising he had won the full amount. 

During the news conference, Jackson said he landed the huge lottery jackpot after using some numbers from a fortune cookie he was served at a Vietnamese restaurant.

Planning to give $1 million to his brother, Jackson becomes the biggest single-ticket jackpot winner in North Carolina and the fifth person in the state to win a Powerball jackpot.

Watch the news conference