RALEIGH – Greensboro resident Chintan Sethiya is the first player to win the top prize in the $500 a Week for Life! game.

The $500 a Week for Life! top prize guarantees winners an annual prize of $26,000 for the rest of their lives. Sethiya received his first annual payment of $17,680 after state and federal taxes were withheld on Wednesday.

$500 a Week for Life! Is one of four instant games offering the chance to win as much as $5,000 a week for life. The tickets, which went on sale Aug. 28, are available for $1, $2, $5, and $10 per play. A top prize is structured in annual payments that continue for a winner’s entire life.

Sethiya purchased the lucky ticket at the Seth Mart on Lees Chapel Road in Greensboro. As of Friday morning, two more top prizes remain to be won in the $500 a Week for Life! game.

Ticket sales for games such as instant scratch-offs have enabled the lottery to raise more than $2.58 billion for education initiatives statewide. Since the lottery began through June 30, 2012, Guilford County education programs received more than $127.6 million in lottery funds. By law, those funds pay for teachers’ salaries in grades K-3, school construction, prekindergarten programs for at-risk four-year-olds, and need-based college scholarships and financial aid.