RALEIGH – A two-day lucky streak for Billy Jack Lassiter of Durham ended Thursday when he scratched off $100,000 on a Carolina Black instant ticket. His good luck began Wednesday when he won $100 playing instant games. On his way home from work Thursday afternoon, he stopped at Billy’s Mart on Cheek Road in Durham. There, he used some of the $100 prize money he’d won the day before to buy a pair of Carolina Black instant tickets. As he began to scratch the first ticket, he saw the $100,000 prize.

“I thought to myself, ‘Good, now I can get some things taken care of,’” Lassiter said as he collected his winnings, which totaled $68,001 after taxes. His immediate plans for the prize money included paying off his van and truck, as well as making some home repairs.

Lassiter, who has worked for 30 years in the security industry, said that if he ever won the lottery, he wanted to take a special vacation. “I would love to go to Scotland,” he said.

With Lassiter’s win, two prizes of $100,000 remain unclaimed in the Carolina Black game. It started June 5 with six top prizes.

Since the lottery began through June 30, 2011, Durham County education programs received more than $40.1 million in lottery funds. By law, those funds pay for teachers’ salaries in grades K-3, school construction, prekindergarten for at-risk four-year-olds, and need-based college scholarships and financial aid.

To date, the N.C. Education Lottery has raised more than $2.45 billion for these initiatives statewide.