RALEIGH – Bob Jones, a retired manufacturing worker from Wilmington, plans to use some of the $175,707 prize he won playing Carolina Cash 5 to take a vacation.

Jones beat odds of 1 in 575,757 when he matched all five numbers in the Sept. 16 drawing, winning him the jackpot. He was at home when he learned of his big win.

“I get up early every day and check my email and my lottery numbers,” Jones said. “I saw the numbers on the screen and had to check them again. You never think it will happen to you. This feels great.”

Jones plans to use another portion of his winnings, worth $119,481 after taxes were withheld, to pay bills. He purchased his winning ticket at the Gas Center on North College Road in Wilmington.

“Keep playing because you just might win,” Jones said about the Carolina Cash 5 game. “Today it’s me, but tomorrow it will be someone else.”

A new Cash 5 promotion offers players five extra chances to win as much as $50,000. The lottery will hold five Cash 5 Bonus Bucks drawings between now and next summer. In each drawing, five prizes will be awarded: One $50,000 grand prize, one $5,000 prize, and three $1,000 prizes.

To get a Bonus Bucks entry slip, a Cash 5 purchase of $5 must be made in one of two ways. A player can select five sets of numbers for one drawing on a single ticket or choose one set of numbers for five drawings on a single ticket. Along with the $5 Cash 5 ticket, an entry slip for the Bonus Bucks drawing will be generated. The entry slip received at the time of purchase must be kept by the player and then validated at one of the lottery’s regional claim centers to collect a prize won in the drawing.

Since the lottery began through June 30, 2011, New Hanover County education programs received more than $32.6 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 college scholarships and financial aid based on need.

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