RALEIGH – Rex Roth, a retired school superintendent from Granger, Ind., won the $150,000 top prize in the 10X the Payout game while visiting family in North Carolina. He scratched the lucky ticket shortly after purchasing it at the Buy & Go on Old Honeycutt Road in Fuquay-Varina on Wednesday.

“This is what you always dream about and it never happens,” Roth said. “But this time it did.”

Roth said he plans to invest and enjoy his winnings, which amounted to $102,001 after taxes were withheld.

“I’m very elated,” said Roth, as he held his check for the first time. “My day has been made by the North Carolina Education Lottery.”

As of Friday morning, one $150,000 top prize remains to be claimed in the 10X the Payout game.

Ticket sales for games such as 10X the Payout have enabled the lottery to raise more than $2.8 billion for education initiatives statewide. Since the lottery began through June 30, 2012, Wake County education programs received more than $189.4 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.