RALEIGH – Amitkumar Kharva, a resident of Cary, plans to use the $193,833 prize he won playing Carolina Cash 5 to pay down his mortgage, pay bills and save for the future.

Kharva matched all five numbers in the Jan. 11 drawing to win the game’s jackpot.

“I didn’t check my tickets for a few days,” Kharva said. “The clerk at the store said I had to claim in Raleigh, but I had no idea how much I had won. I went home and checked online and I couldn’t believe it. My heart was beating faster. I never thought I’d win this kind of money. It’s like a dream.”

Kharva, who said he previously won $5,000 playing Carolina Pick 4, received a check for $131,806 after taxes were withheld. He purchased his winning ticket at the Kroger on U.S. 64 in Apex.

Since the lottery began through June 30 of this year, Wake County education programs received more than $145 million in lottery funds. By law, those funds pay for teachers’ salaries in grades K-3, school construction, need-based college scholarships and prekindergarten programs. Players in Wake County have won more than $277 million in prizes since the lottery’s inception.

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