RALEIGH – Scott Sage and Jay Venaas of Charlotte plan to use the $100,000 prize they won playing the lottery to save for the future. They are the first to win the $5 MONOPOLY game’s top prize.

“I scratched the ticket at home and I immediately started shaking,” Venaas said. “We like to buy tickets together, but we’ve never won anything like this.”

After taxes were withheld, Sage and Venaas each received a check for $34,000. They purchased the lucky ticket at the Quick’N E-Z on West Trade Street in Charlotte.

“This isn’t enough to retire on but it really helps you feel humbled,” Sage said. As of Monday afternoon, five $100,000 top prizes remain to be claimed in the game.

The $5 MONOPOLY game is part of a suite of games that launched on March 26. All four games, priced at $1, $2, $5 and $10, are eligible for monthly second-chance drawings featuring cash prizes up to $10,000. Every entry is also automatically applied towards a MONOPOLY Super Entry. The MONOPOLY Super Entry Drawing will feature a $1 million prize. A “super entry” consists of a non-winning ticket entry from each of the four new MONOPOLY games. Online entry forms and additional information can be found at www.lucke-zone.com.

Since the lottery began through June 30, 2012, Mecklenburg County education programs received more than $210.9 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 $2.6 billion for these initiatives statewide.