Erick Lopez, a construction worker from Sneads Ferry in Onslow County, plans to use the $100,000 prize he won playing the N.C. Education Lottery’s Wheel of Fortune game to travel and invest for the future.

Lopez scratched off the lucky ticket at home after making his purchase at the One Stop Shop on Corbin Street in Jacksonville.

“That’s a lot of zeroes,” Lopez recalled thinking the moment he scratched the ticket. Lopez received a check for $68,001 after taxes were withheld.

“This feels good,” Lopez said as he held his check for the first time. “It’s starting to sink in now.”

As of Friday morning, two more top prizes remain to be won in the Wheel of Fortune game. Along with five $100,000 top prizes, the game features three second-chance drawings that will send three players to Hollywood for the chance to play in a non-broadcast Wheel of Fortune game with winners from North Carolina and other participating states. If selected, players have the chance to play to win up to $1 million. The next drawing will be held on Dec. 21, 2011.
From March 30, 2006 through June 30, 2011, Onslow County players won more than $60 million in prizes and local retailers earned more than $8.2 million in commissions on ticket sales.
During the same time frame, Onslow County education programs received more than $29.4 million in lottery funds. By law, these funds benefit specific programs. More than $10 million paid for salaries of 203 teachers in grades K-3; more than $7 million provided 1,797 prekindergarten opportunities for at-risk four year olds; and more than $2.1 million went to 1,914 need-based college scholarships. Onslow County officials decided how to utilize more than $10.2 million in school construction funds provided by the lottery.
To date, the N.C. Education Lottery has raised more than $2.1 billion for these initiatives statewide.