RALEIGH – Charlotte resident Jacqueline Hernandez plans to use the $125,000 she won playing $125,000 Casino Cash to invest and purchase a new car. She scratched the winning ticket while standing at the Easy Shop on The Plaza in Charlotte, where she made her purchase. She had originally visited the store to play Carolina Pick 3, but was convinced by the clerk to try her luck on an instant scratch-off ticket.

“The clerk behind the counter asked why I never buy $5 tickets,” Hernandez said. “I told him if I lost I would cry. But I kept looking at the ticket, like it was calling out to me. I scratched it and asked him to tell me it was real. This is a blessing.”

Hernandez, who has won $300 before on a scratch-off ticket, received a check for $85,001 after taxes were withheld. She said that she appreciates that a portion of the money spent on lottery games goes to assist education in the state.

“It’s very important,” Hernandez said. “Education comes first. I like that it goes to teacher salaries.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, two more top prizes remain to be claimed in the $125,000 Casino Cash game.

From March 30, 2006 through June 30, 2011, Mecklenburg County players won more than $215.5 million in prizes and local retailers earned more than $30.1 million in commissions on ticket sales.

During the same time frame, Mecklenburg County education programs received more than $167.3 million in lottery funds. By law, these funds benefit specific programs. More than $58.1 million paid for 1,173 teacher salaries in grades K-3; more than $24.7 million provided 6,509 prekindergarten opportunities for at-risk four year olds; and more than $11.7 million went to 10,429 need-based college scholarships. Mecklenburg County officials decided how to utilize more than $72.7 million in school construction funds provided by the lottery.

To date, the N.C. Education Lottery has raised more than $2 billion for these initiatives statewide.