RALEIGH – Sunday turned out to be Roderick Singletary’s lucky day as he won a $100,000 prize playing the $4,000,000 Gold Bullion game.

Singletary, a carpenter from Middlesex, said he usually meets a friend on Sundays at the Trans Mini Mart on East Finch Avenue and together they try their luck with the lottery. He said when he began scratching the instant ticket he quickly saw he had won $40,000 and got so excited that he left the store. He said when he got to his friend’s house he finished scratching the ticket and discovered he had won a total of $100,000.

“It just happened to be my lucky day,” said Singletary as he collected his prize money Monday at the N.C. Education Lottery headquarters in Raleigh.

Singletary said he planned to use the money, $68,006 after taxes were withheld, to pay bills and for savings. He became the third person to win $100,000 prize in the game.

When the $20 game started in February, it began with three $4 million prizes, seven $1 million prizes, and eight $100,000 prizes. As of Monday afternoon, two $4 million prizes, five $1 million prizes and five $100,000 prizes remain to be claimed. Players who win the game’s top prize have the option of receiving a 20-year annuity or a lump sum option that can be claimed in either cash or gold bullion.

Since the lottery began through June 30, 2012, Nash County education programs received more than $26.4 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. To date, the lottery has raised more than $2.8 billion for these initiatives statewide.