RALEIGH – Todd and Penny Beck, a salesman for Vulcan Materials and a marketing coordinator from Kernersville in Forsyth County, plan to pay bills and give to charities with the $1 million prize they won playing the N.C. Education Lottery’s Carolina Gold game. Todd made his winning purchase at the King’s Crossing BP on Highway 68 in Stokesdale. He scratched his ticket while waiting at a stoplight on the way to work.

“I was just scratching off the numbers and I saw the instant win symbol,” Todd Beck said. “I didn’t look at the dollar amount until I got to my office. I was shocked. I assumed I’d break even, or maybe get a hundred dollars or even twenty dollars. This is amazing.”

The Becks also plan to take a family trip to Disney World with their winnings. They appreciate that the money spent on lottery games goes to help education programs across the state.

“I saw a commercial yesterday,” said Penny Beck. “I stopped and listened to the entire commercial. It’s great that it does things for the education of our children.”

The Carolina Gold game allows players who win the top prize to choose between a 20-year annuity paying $50,000 a year or a discounted lump sum payment. The Becks chose the lump sum payment of $680,000 and after taxes received a check for $462,403.

The game launched Sept. 27 with three top prizes of $1 million that could be won instantly. Players can enter their non-winning tickets into a second chance drawing for a fourth $1 million prize.

As of Monday afternoon, one more $1 million top prize remains to be claimed instantly in the Carolina Gold game.

From March 30, 2006 through June 30, 2011, Forsyth County players won more than $114 million in prizes and local retailers earned more than $15.6 million in commissions on ticket sales.
During the same time frame, Forsyth County education programs received more than $63.7 million in lottery funds. By law, these funds benefit specific programs.

More than $21.4 million paid salaries of 435 teachers in grades K-3; more than $8.7 million provided 2,318 prekindergarten opportunities for at-risk four year olds; and more than $5.4 million went to 4,684 need-based college scholarships. Forsyth County officials decided how to utilize more than $28 million in school construction funds provided by the lottery.

To date, the N.C. Education Lottery has raised more than $2.1 billion for the education initiatives it serves statewide.