RALEIGH – Richard Daveler, a maintenance supervisor from Pikeville in Wayne County, calls himself a pretty lucky lottery player. This was proven to be true on Tuesday as he became the biggest instant scratch-off winner in Wayne County history by revealing a $1 million prize on his Cash Spectacular ticket. The big win came after he’d scratched off two of the three tickets he had purchased from the Arrington Mart on Bill Lane Boulevard in Dudley.

“I scratched off the first one and it was a thousand bucks,” Daveler said. “The cashier thought I was joking. Then I scratched the big one and he really thought I was messing with him.”

Daveler, who said he has won $500 and $1,000 prizes previously on scratch-off tickets, will receive $50,000 a year for 20 years. He received his first check, worth $34,003 after taxes, on Tuesday afternoon. He said he didn’t have any big plans for his winnings after the first year’s payment.

“For now I’m going to pay bills and maybe purchase a new vehicle,” Daveler said.

Daveler is the eighth player to win the $1 million top prize in the Cash Spectacular game since it launched in January 2010. To date, the game has paid out more than $100 million in prizes and generated more than $24 million for education in the state. As of Thursday, Jan. 5, two more $1 million top prizes remain to be claimed.

Since the lottery began through June 30 of this year, Wayne County education programs received more than $29.6 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 Wayne County have won more than $55.3 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.